Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah
Berlin … News Time
On Thursday, the German parliament voted on a bill to impose sanctions on the Lebanese Shiite militia, in which the bill was overwhelmingly approved. Germany’s ruling parties have called for the EU to impose sanctions on Lebanese Hezbollah, adding it to the list of terrorist organizations. Party spokesman for the conservative German Chancellor Angela Merkel in parliament has said Mathias Middelberg a joint decision will be taken against Hezbollah with the Social Democrats Party. He also said in a statement that funds are being raised around the world for terrorist acts, along with other Hezbollah criminal activities. Mathias Middelberg added that we call on the government to ban all Hezbollah activities in Germany.
Military Wing and Europe:
The European Union has added the Iranian-backed Hezbollah military wing to the list of banned terrorist groups, but those restrictions do not apply to Hezbollah’s political wing. Hezbollah has been a part of Lebanese governments in recent years and its political wing is considered effective in Lebanon. Mathias Middelberg said Hezbollah’s separation of political and military wing should be abandoned and Hezbollah should be included in the list of EU terrorist organizations as a whole. He added that imposing sanctions on Hezbollah in Germany would freeze its organization’s assets and funds. It is unclear whether the implementation of a bill approved by the German parliament will ban all Hezbollah activities; however, the ruling coalition and other political parties appear to agree on sanctions on Hezbollah.
Hezbollah violence and terrorism threats:
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas acknowledges that Hezbollah’s relations with the Lebanese government have complicated the political situation in Lebanon. All this in place, but in Germany we should have no bar to prevent Hezbollah terrorist activities. Hezbollah is adding missiles and heavy weapons to its arsenal, with threats of violence and terrorism, he said. Hezbollah militias have been in the process of setting up secret cells on the outskirts of Lebanon for the past several years. Hezbollah’s activities abroad are aimed at targeting US and Israeli interests and attacking anti-Hezbollah forces. Last year, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah had threatened that US interests would be targeted throughout the world if the United States had foolishly attacked Iran.
