US Secretary of State Kerry calls for blacklisting Hezbollah

        
Al-Joumhourya Daily reported on Thursday that the US Secretary of State John Kerry held earlier a meeting in Paris with the French President Francois Hollande whereby he shed light on the Lebanese issues, mainly Hezbollah, and stressed that his country will exert tireless efforts to put Hezbollah on the terrorist list as the movement was accused of carrying out a bomb attack on a bus in Burgas.                   

In this context, both officials tackled the strategic coordination in terms of key issues, such as the military intervention in Mali, the Syrian crisis, the Negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program and the need to sow the seeds of stability in Afghanistan.        

Bulgaria accused the Lebanese Resistance Movement Hezbollah of carrying out a bomb attack on a bus in the Black Sea city of Burgas that killed five Israeli tourists last July.     

The conclusions of the Bulgarian investigation, citing a clear connection to an attack on European Union soil, may open the way for the EU to join the United States in branding the Iranian-backed Hezbollah a terrorist organization.              

Three people were involved in the attack, two of whom had genuine passports from Australia and Canada, Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov told reporters after Sofia's national security council discussed the investigation.          

"There is data showing the financing and connection between Hezbollah and the two suspects," Tsvetanov said.             

"What can be established as a well-grounded assumption is that the two persons whose real identity has been determined belonged to the military wing of Hezbollah."            

Israel blamed the attack in Burgas - which killed five Israeli tourists, their Bulgarian driver and the bomber - on Iran and Hezbollah, a powerful Shi'ite Islamist resistance that is part of the Lebanese government.               

Iran has denied responsibility and accused arch-enemy Israel of plotting and carrying out the blast. Hezbollah, designated by the United States as a terrorist organisation in the 1990s, has not publicly responded to charges that it played a role.


REUTERS/LBCI