BEIRUT – Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Wednesday, July 24, the European Union had given Israel justification to attack Lebanon by blacklisting the armed wing of his group, and would bear responsibility for any Israeli military action.

The bloc agreed earlier this week to list what it described as the military wing of the Lebanon-based militant group as a terrorist organization, in response to a deadly bus bombing in Bulgaria last year and Hizbullah’s role in Syria’s civil war.

“These countries must know … that they have given legal cover to Israel for any aggression against Lebanon. Why? Because Israel can then say ‘We are waging war on terrorism’,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech.

“These countries have made themselves a full partner in responsibility for any Israeli aggression against Lebanon,” he said in the speech delivered by video link from an undisclosed location.

Nasrallah said the aim of the decision is to subdue Hizbullah, vowing to his supporters that the EU move would fail.

“Anyone who thinks that a resistance group that confronted the strongest army in the region for 33 days … would submit to a stupid decision is delusional and ignorant,” he said.

The Lebanese group denies any involvement in last July’s attack in Bulgaria, in which five Israelis and their driver died, and says the European Union surrendered to U.S. and Israeli pressure. The Bulgarian interior minister said last week Sofia had no doubt the group was behind the attack.

In support of its bid to impose sanctions, Britain also cited a four-year jail sentence handed down by a Cypriot court in March to a Hizbullah member accused of plotting to attack Israeli interests on the island.

EU diplomats have not specified which elements of Hizbullah would be targeted by the decision, nor whether Nasrallah himself is considered part of Hizbullah’s military or political operations.

-Reuters, TAAN