The move will freeze assets Hezbollah may hold within the EU, but falls short of blacklisting the entire organization of Hezbollah as one entity. The EU’s designation means the body still considers the parliamentary faction of Hezbollah, which was not blacklisted, to be a separate political wing and not part of a terrorist organization.
“The EU decision to ban Hezbollah’s ‘military wing’ is an important first step, but it is not nearly enough,” B’nai B’rith International President Allan J. Jacobs said. “The distinction between Hezbollah’s ‘military’ and ‘political wing’ has been contrived—it’s a distinction unrecognized by Hezbollah itself. Without an across-the-board designation blacklisting the entirety of Hezbollah, this could prove to be only little more than a symbolic move without the power to significantly curtail the operations of the terrorist organization…more.