EU must change its approach to Hezbollah and place the group in its entirety on the EU sanctions list

For almost a decade Hezbollah has been given special status on the international stage. Unlike any other terrorist group, the Iran-backed group’s apologists naively differentiate between the group’s military and political wing.

If any good can come from the horrendous ordeal Lebanon has endured in the past few months, it is that the international community, in particular France and the EU, must now see that the so-called political wing of Hezbollah is just as pernicious as the militant wing.

The distinction between Hezbollah's military and political wings is a compromise that EU member states laboriously worked out in 2013. For almost a decade this cowardice has been maintained by the flawed assumption that proscribing Hezbollah in its entirety would complicate relations with Lebanon and limit the EU’s ability to influence its political leadership. Ignoring these concerns entirely, Hezbollah’s senior leadership has itself routinely denied that any such distinction exists, making a mockery of the EU’s approach.

Thankfully the status quo is coming to an end.  The UK, Germany and a number of other European states have designated Hezbollah a terrorist group in its entirety. Yet the EU, and notably France, have not. This failure to act is having disastrous consequences for Lebanon.

As President Macron must learn it is Hezbollah, not the EU or France, that has the most influence over Lebanon’s political leadership. Hence, in the aftermath of the Beirut port explosion and imminent economic ruin, Lebanon was unable to form a government to implement economic and political reforms that would have unlocked desperately needed financial aid. Why? Because Hezbollah feared losing control of the finance ministry.

If ever proof were needed that the political wing of Hezbollah is as destructive as the military wing, it is now on display for the world to see. Hezbollah is so wedded to maintaining its power and influence over the state finances that it would rather usher in the total collapse of the Lebanese economy than lose control of the nation's purse strings.

Moderates in Lebanon are increasingly growing frustrated with the EU’s intransigence on this issue. Bahaa Hariri, the former son of Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri and a prominent Lebanese businessman, recently spoke out against the status quo, stating “we have suffered a lot in Lebanon, and others have to understand that warlords are not builders of nations.”

Thankfully, where the EU and France have failed, the US has stepped up.  In recent weeks it has imposed tough new sanctions aimed explicitly at limiting Hezbollah's influence over the political process. The US Treasury targeted two former cabinet ministers close to Hezbollah – Ali Hassan Khalil, a former finance minister, and Youssef Fenianos, a former public works and transportation minister – and is understood to be considering placing other senior political figures under the same measures.

The United States has targeted Hezbollah with sanctions for years, but this is the first time it has imposed sanctions on high-profile former government ministers. It is widely understood that these sanctions are part of a broader effort to signal that politicians can be targeted, and that the rapacious behaviour of the Hezbollah-backed elite will not go unpunished.

Contrary to belief, Hezbollah is not only a threat to Lebanon. The EU is itself a major target of the group. Soon after these latest sanctions were announced, a senior official in the State Department warned that Hezbollah was stockpiling large amounts of ammonium nitrate – the deadly chemical that caused the blast in Beirut – in the EU itself. Significant amounts of the substance had been “moved through Belgium to France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Switzerland” while “significant ammonium nitrate caches have been discovered or destroyed in France, Greece, and Italy”.

In June this year we saw the US Senate and the House of Representatives pass bipartisan resolutions calling on the EU to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. Yet nothing changed.

The EU’s inaction, sponsored in large part by France’s overly-conciliatory approach to Iran, leaves the bloc looking weak and indecisive. The EU must change its approach to Hezbollah and place the group in its entirety on the EU sanctions list, or be held liable for Hezbollah’s continued destruction of Lebanon and its malign activity elsewhere – including in the EU’s backyard.

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