Members of Congress ask EU to designate Hezbollah as terrorist organization

A bipartisan group of Congressional lawmakers is urging European Union (EU) member states to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

The lawmakers state that Hezbollah is using Europe as a launching pad for its criminal and terrorist activities, including money laundering, drug smuggling, recruitment, and training.

“The United States remains dedicated to combating global terrorism and its enablers, and we encourage our allies and partners to join in this effort. To build on these efforts, we strongly urge the EU to designate the entirety of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization,” the member of Congress wrote to EU leaders. “Hezbollah’s fundraising and illicit business activities have generated additional annual revenue which the organization uses to support its global terrorism, including a 2012 Hezbollah terror attack in Bulgaria that killed 5 Israeli tourists and 1 Bulgarian citizen.”

The legislators noted that Canada, the Gulf Cooperation Council, and the Arab League, as well as several other individual countries, have taken this step, in addition to the United States.

“We appreciate the EU’s efforts to counter Hezbollah since it designated Hezbollah’s military wing as a terrorist organization in 2013, as well as its continued cooperation with the U.S. in thwarting Hezbollah’s illicit activities,” the lawmakers wrote. “We also continue to welcome action by individual member states to enact a formal terror designation of Hezbollah in its entirety and ban its activities within their borders.”