Netanyahu: Hezbollah planning 'global terror attacks'
World leaders should declare Hezbollah a terrorist entity, Israel's leader has said, hours after Bulgaria blamed the Lebanese group for a deadly bus bomb.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hezbollah had built a "worldwide terrorist" network and was planning attacks in two dozen countries.
He spoke after Bulgaria said militants linked to the Shia group carried out the July 2012 Burgas bombing.Meanwhile, Canada has said a dual Canadian-Lebanese national was involved in the bombing and is believed to be still at large.
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Analysis
image of Wyre Davies Wyre Davies BBC Middle East correspondent
Long before this official report was released by the Bulgarian authorities, Israel had accused Hezbollah (and its principal sponsor, Iran) of being behind the Burgas attack.
Since the July 2012 bombing, Israel and the US have pressed European Union states to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation (denying it access to funding and other financial assets in Europe).
While some, including Britain and the Netherlands, might support such a move, other countries, such as France, oppose it. France counters that Hezbollah is a political and social as well as a militant organisation.
The French argue that proscribing it as an illegal terrorist organisation could destabilise Lebanon and its current coalition government, of which Hezbollah is part.
Iran has steadfastly denied any involvement, while Hezbollah has made no comment.
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Samson Option - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The ideology of Hezbollah has been summarized as Shi'i radicalism.[50][51][52] Hezbollah was largely formed with the aid of the Ayatollah Khomeini's followers in the early 1980s in order to spread Islamic revolution[53] and follows a distinct version of Islamic Shi'a ideology (Valiyat al-faqih or Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists) developed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the "Islamic Revolution" in Iran.
Attitudes, statements, and actions concerning Israel and Zionism
From the inception of Hezbollah to the present,[19][54] the elimination of the State of Israel has been one of Hezbollah's primary goals. Some translations of Hezbollah's 1985 Arabic-language manifesto state that "our struggle will end only when this entity [Israel] is obliterated".[19] According to Hezbollah's Deputy-General, Na'im Qasim, the struggle against Israel is a core belief of Hezbollah and the central rationale of Hezbollah's existence.[55]
Robert S. Wistrich, a historian specializing in the study of anti-Semitism, described Hezbollah's ideology concerning Jews:
"The anti-Semitism of Hezbollah leaders and spokesmen combines the image of seemingly invincible Jewish power ... and cunning with the contempt normally reserved for weak and cowardly enemies. Like the Hamas propaganda for holy war, that of Hezbollah has relied on the endless vilification of Jews as 'enemies of mankind,' 'conspiratorial, obstinate, and conceited' adversaries full of 'satanic plans' to enslave the Arabs. It fuses traditional Islamic anti-Judaism with Western conspiracy myths, Third Worldist anti-Zionism, and Iranian Shiite contempt for Jews as 'ritually impure' and corrupt infidels.
Hezbollah receives substantial amounts of financial, training, weapons, explosives, political, diplomatic, and organizational aid from Iran and Syria.[47][61][84] According to reports released in February 2010, Hezbollah received $400 million dollars from Iran.[84][85][86][87] The US estimates that Iran has been giving Hezbollah about US$60–100 million per year in financial assistance.[88] Other estimates are as high as $200-million annually.[83]
Hezbollah - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia