Bulgaria to Provide more Evidence on Alleged Hizbullah Hand in Burgas Attack
Bulgaria's caretaker prime minister Marin Raykov has said Sofia will provide more evidence that Hizbullah planned a deadly attack on Israeli tourists last year to convince European Union countries to put the party on its terror list.
Raykov said on a visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday that some EU countries were ‘‘not sufficiently convinced’’ by Bulgaria’s evidence that Hizbullah was behind the July 18 bus attack in the Black Sea resort of Burgas that left 5 Israelis dead.
The blast also killed the Bulgarian driver and the suspected bomber, a tall and lanky pale-skinned man wearing a baseball cap and dressed like a tourist.
Adding Hizbullah to the EU list of terrorist organizations would require a unanimous decision by the foreign ministers of the 27 EU countries.
‘‘For Bulgaria it is of key importance to have a common position, to have a consensus on this (within the EU),’’ Raykov told reporters.
‘‘We will continue the investigation. We will continue to work on this very seriously, very actively. We will provide the needed evidence,’’ he said.
‘‘But it’s not for Bulgaria to initiate the technical procedure for the listing (of Hizbullah). I think that our partners will be able to do this once they reach a certain level of consensus on this issue,’’ he added.
The Netherlands has already declared Hizbullah a terrorist organization. Britain lists only the group’s militant wing as a terrorist organization, distinguishing it from the political side.
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