Banning Hizbollah in Europe (prepared statement)

By Matthew Levitt

I submitted written testimony for today's hearing before the Europe Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. My colleague Michael Jacobson testified at the hearing.

Introduction

Pressing our European allies to add Hezbollah to the European Union (EU)'s terrorism list is more important today than ever before. Nearly a year after it dragged both Lebanon and Israel into a devastating war last July, Hezbollah has reportedly restocked its weapons caches and missile arsenals, rebuilt much of its destroyed infrastructure, and capitalized on its ability to hold the Israel Defense Forces at bay (and the political reckoning that followed in Israel) to position itself as an even more dominant player in domestic Lebanese politics as well as the face of resistance and pride in the Arab and Muslim worlds. Hezbollah's proactive support for radical Palestinian elements engaged in acts of terrorism and political violence is central to these groups' success and continues unabated. Renewed rocket attacks into northern Israel this week and the recent Hamas coup in Gaza (which tactically replicated Hezbollah tactics in Southern Lebanon) are just the most recent disturbing signs of how successful this strategy has been. Hezbollah is Syria's primary proxy in Lebanon seeing to Syrian interests in the wake of the withdrawal of Syrian troops in April 2005, playing a particularly disruptive role opposing the establishment of an international tribunal to investigate and try suspects tied to the Hariri and other bombings targeting political and intellectual leaders of the anti-Syrian coalition. Hezbollah operatives are further suspected of training Iraqi insurgents and of sending it own combatants to Iraq.

Hezbollah is particularly active in Europe, primarily engaged in financial and logistical support operations as well as political activity to legitimize its activities in the eyes of the West. An EU designation would undercut these activities and provide member states' intelligence and law enforcement agencies greater authority to investigate the activities of Hezbollah operatives and supporters active within their borders. To the surprise of some, Hezbollah leaders themselves have expressed concern that an EU designation would severely undermine the organization?s activities.

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