BICOM

Bulgaria’s Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, announced yesterday that Hezbollah was responsible for a bomb blast in July at the Black Sea resort of Burgas, which killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver.

Tsvetanov detailed the findings of the Bulgarian investigation, which found that three people were involved in the attack, two of whom had Australian and Canadian passports and had lived in Lebanon from 2006-10. He said “We have established that the two were members of the militant wing of Hezbollah…There is data showing the financing and connection between Hezbollah and the two suspects.”

Tsvetanov also thanked the Israeli government for its “relevant expertise” in aiding the Bulgarian probe. Later in the day, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a statement in which he said that the Burgas bombing was just one example of a terrorist war being waged by Hezbollah and its Iranian ally that “spans borders and continents.” Netanyahu added, “We hope the Europeans will draw the necessary conclusions regarding the true nature of Hezbollah.”

The findings of the report are expected to increase calls on the European Union (EU) to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. It is thought that such a step would significantly hamper Hezbollah’s activities and in particular its’ fundraising capacity. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton was non-committal over the prospects of such a move, saying yesterday that the “implications of the investigation need to be assessed seriously.” Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary William Hague urged “that the EU respond robustly to an attack on European soil. Every act of terror is an attack on our shared values.” The UK already regards Hezbollah’s armed wing as a terrorist group, but distinguishes this from its political wing.