BEIRUT: Caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour said Sunday that precautionary diplomatic contacts were underway to prevent placing Hezbollah’s “military wing” on the European Union’s terror list. Mansour told the state-run Tele Liban that if Hezbollah was blacklisted “it would set a precedent and would have grave repercussions for Lebanon, because the party is an integral part of the political system and it is represented in Parliament and in the Cabinet.”

 

He stressed: “Hezbollah’s political and military wings can’t be separated.”

 

“It is not acceptable for this resistance party, which honored Lebanon and the Arab nation and liberated our lands from the Israelis, to be treated in this way so that certain countries ... can settle scores with it,” Mansour said.

 

The foreign minister also warned such a step would “leave its mark on Lebanese-European relations.”

 

The National News Agency reported Friday that Mansour had sent letters to his counterparts in 28 EU countries asking that Hezbollah not be placed on its list of terrorist organizations.

 

Hezbollah and Shiite party Amal voiced their appreciation last week for the Lebanese leadership’s decision to ask the EU to refrain from blacklisting the organization.

 

EU foreign ministers are scheduled to discuss the issue Monday.

 

Pressure mounted on the EU to add Hezbollah to its terror list following evidence of the party’s involvement in an attack on a bus carrying Israeli tourists in Bulgaria last year.

 

Hezbollah denies any involvement in the attack.

 

If the EU does move to blacklist the organization’s military wing, diplomats would have to decide where the line between Hezbollah’s military and political components lay in order to impose effective sanctions.