EU foreign ministers, gathered in Bruxelles on July 22nd 2013, have included the Hezbollah’s military branch on the European list of terrorist organization.

The registration is supposed to sanction one or many of the terrorist actions that have been committed on the Union’s soil. Despite the denials of the organization, the Counsel argued that is was the case regarding the assault that took place in Burgas (Bulgaria), on July 18th 2012, against an Israeli bus. At the time, Boïko Borissov’s bulgarian government (moderateright) had publicly declared it as being a Hezbollah intervention. However, this was later refuted by his successors (moderate-left). [1].

In fact, this decision to suddenly consider the Lebanese Resistance as a terrorist organization was a pressing demand on behalf of Israel and the United-States. It was brought to the European Counsel by William Hague (UK) and Laurent Fabius (France). Lebanon had warned the EU against registering as terrorist a faction that has a seat in it’s government. As it turned out, the Counsel only partially complied to Tel-Aviv’s and Washington’s request, by establishing a distinction between the Hezbollah’s political and military branches.

This distinction leaves one to ponder : indeed, Hezbollah’s military branch is legitimate, for it has overcome several times the Israeli invader. One enrols to defend one’s country, with nothing to win, and one’s life to lose. The political branch is unfortunately infected by the same sickness that eats away at most of the lebanese political parties : corruption. Among them, one finds many ways to prosper. In the meantime, according to Hezbollah’s general secretary, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, it’s members’ ideal is not to enter politics, but to follow the example of the Iman Hussein (grandson of the prophet Mahomet) and to die as martyrs on the battlefield.

Widely supported by the Lebanese, the Resistance is mainly shiite, although a special section has been created for the non-shiite.

The Hezbollah elaborated it’s concept of ’’Resistance’’ based on Charles De Gaulle’s model during the Second World War. And today, it is being condemned, at France’s initiative. The Lebanese Resistance is the Arab’s world’s most important armed force, more efficient than any of the states’ armies.

The official Lebanese Defence doctrine is organized around the triptych ’’People/Army/Resistance’’. However, this doctrine isn’t recognized by the president, Michel Sleiman, since August 2012.

Translation
Alizée Ville

[1« Bulgaria discards Hezbollah involvement in Burgas bombing », Voltaire Network, June 7th, 2013.