Hague calls for designation of Hezbollah military wing as terrorist group

UK foreign secretary William Hague Monday said he does not believe that the blacklisting of Hezbollah will destabilise Lebanon and noted that a majority of EU countries want the group to be listed as a terrorist organisation. "A high priority for the United Kingdom at this meeting today is the designation of the military wing of Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation by the European Union. This is something that we have proposed last month," he told reporters as he arrived for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. "It is a year since the terrible bombing attack in Bulgaria and we believe it is very important when there is a terrorist attack on European soil Europe gives a firm and clear response to that," he said. "We do believe that it is important to designate the military wing of Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation based on the evidence of terrorist activity in Europe. Great majority of EU member states support that designation. We don't believe that this will adversely affect the stability of Lebanon," added Hague. On Egypt, the British official stressed that "it is important that the democratic transition succeeds. That means working with the new authorities. But that also means that those who have been detained from the previous government should be released to take part in the democratic process." "The UK doesn't support military interventions in democratic processes. I consider it as a dangerous precedent for the future. But this has happened and we have to work with the authorities there," he added. Hague called for "an inclusive democratic transition in which the Muslim Brotherhood are not driven out of the democratic politics, but in which they decide to continue to take part in democratic politics is very important."