Netanyahu Seeks Italy Help in Putting Hizbullah on EU Terror List

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on Monday due to seek Italy's help in putting Hizbullah on a European Union list of “terrorist” organizations.

Ahead of talks with his Italian counterpart Enrico Letta, Netanyahu told reporters that Hizbullah is one of the most "pre-eminent terrorist organizations of our time," adding that the group currently poses the most immediate security threat to Israel, in remarks carried by the website of The Jerusalem Post.

"If Hizbullah is not a terrorist group, then I don't know who is," Netanyahu said in an interview with leading Italian daily Corriere della Sera ahead of meeting in Jerusalem with Letta.

"They kill everywhere, even on European territory as occurred in Bulgaria," he said, referring to the bus bombing in the Black Sea city of Burgas in July 2012 in which five Israeli tourists and their Bulgarian driver died.

On June 20, European Union nations failed to come to a decision to add the military wing of Hizbullah to the bloc's list of international terrorist groups despite fresh talks on the issue.

Diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity said Austria and the Czech Republic opposed the move to add the group to the dozen people and score of groups currently on the EU terrorist list -- including Hamas and Colombia's FARC guerrillas -- who are subject to an asset freeze.

Concerns over Hizbullah have mounted in Europe since the Burgas attack last year which Sofia blamed on Hizbullah. In March, a Cyprus court sentenced a self-confessed Hizbullah member to four years behind bars for planning attacks there.

Hizbullah has also plunged into the Syrian conflict in recent months, sending fighters to help President Bashar Assad's forces in battles against rebel forces.

After months of hesitation, EU counter-terror specialists first met on the issue on June 4 but failed to reach unanimity on blacklisting Hizbullah after objections from several countries.

France, Germany and the Netherlands have backed Britain in seeking to add Hizbullah to the list.

But EU diplomats said opponents fear such a move could destabilize politically fragile Lebanon and would be hard to implement due to the difficulty of distinguishing between its political and military wings.

Currently, Britain and the Netherlands are the only EU nations to have placed Hizbullah on their lists of terrorist groups.