Eight years ago today, February 14, 2005, former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri was assassinated, along with 22 others, when a massive explosive detonated as his motorcade drove past Beirut’s St. George Hotel. European leaders were aghast, especially the French president, Jacques Chirac, who was particularly close to Hariri. Today, as many of those same European officials debate whether or not to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist group over its recent operations in Europe, they should take to heart the fact that over a year ago a U.N. tribunal charged four Hezbollah members with Hariri’s murder, including the group’s current chief operations officer, Mustapha Badreddine.
For years, European countries have pushed off the issue of adding Hezbollah to the EU’s list of banned terrorist groups, citing the fact that the group had not carried out terrorist attacks on the continent since the 1980s. Sure, it raised funds across the continent hand-over-fist, and provided logistical support to operatives carrying out attacks elsewhere, but that fell below the European threshold, which is bombs exploding in Europe. Now, recent Hezbollah plots in Bulgaria and Cyprus in particular are forcing reluctant European leaders to seriously debate the issue of designating Hezbollah, in whole or just the so-called “military wing.”
