SOFIA -- Bulgaria's new interim prime minister said Saturday he would not initiate any move to impose European Union sanctions on the Islamist group Hezbollah, even though the country had implicated the Islamist movement in a bombing at a Black Sea resort.
| Is Bulgaria a full member of the EU, or are they still going through the intentionally interminable application process? |
Marin Raikov did not give a reason for his decision -- but it will likely be seen as a concession to Bulgarian opposition groups, who have argued the country could open itself up to more attacks if it takes the lead in blacklisting Hezbollah.
| Because it's already better to kowtow to terrorists rather than stand up to them... |
Raikov, a career diplomat, took over at the head of a technocrat administration on Wednesday after mass protests against poverty and corruption by opposition groups and other activists brought down Bulgaria's center-right government. He was appointed by the president to maintain market confidence and placate protesters before an election May 12.
Opposition leaders had also used the protests to denounce what they saw as irresponsible government accusations that Hezbollah was behind last year's bombing that killed five Israelis in the Black Sea resort of Burgas.
| 'Irresponsible'? The Hezbies were proud of doing this. What's irresponsible about putting the blame where it lies -- oh, right, it tends to create sympathy for the Joooz, and the socialists can't have that... |
"Bulgaria will not initiate a procedure" for listing Hezbollah as a "terrorist organization," Raikov told the state BNR radio station. "We will only present the objective facts and circumstances and let our European partners decide."
| "And if those highly advanced and civilized -- as they so frequently remind the rest of us -- European partners decide yet again on the path of cowardice in the face of irrefutable evidence, we won't save them from the consequences." |
Last month, then-interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said three people were involved in the bombing and an investigation suggested they had links to Hezbollah, a powerful Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim movement.
Last week, the European Commission said the E.U. would consider imposing sanctions on Hezbollah but did not yet have sufficient evidence of its activities in Europe to make a decision.
| They sound like Pakistan going on about the innocence of the only surviving member of the 2998 LeT Mumbai massacre...until India hanged him anyway last autumn. |
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