EU meeting with Hezbollah arouses Israel’s protest

Israel on Thursday summoned European Union officials to protest a recent meeting between European ambassadors and a senior Hezbollah member, government officials said.

Foreign Ministry director Ron Prosor met representatives of the EU and expressed Israel's deep concern over a recent meeting between Muhammad Fanish, the Hezbollah representative in the Lebanese government, and the EU, French and Italian ambassadors in Lebanon.

Prosor requested that Hezbollah be included in the EU list of terrorist organizations.

Israel fought a bloody 18-year guerrilla war with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon until Israel's pullout in 2000, and the Lebanon-based group continues to call for Israel's destruction, the AP reports.

Hezbollah, like the Palestinian Hamas, has a political wing and a militant wing and claims they are separate entities. Israel has repeatedly rejected such a separation, saying any acknowledgment of the organization gives legitimacy to a terror organization bent on the destruction of Israel. AM