{"id":72917,"date":"2013-06-10T08:29:29","date_gmt":"2013-06-10T08:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=72917"},"modified":"2013-06-12T06:53:25","modified_gmt":"2013-06-12T06:53:25","slug":"bulgaria-says-hezbollahs-role-in-bus-bombing-unproven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=72917","title":{"rendered":"Bulgaria says Hezbollah&#8217;s role in bus bombing unproven"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal<\/w:View> <w:Zoom>0<\/w:Zoom> <w:DoNotOptimizeForBrowser \/> <\/w:WordDocument> <\/xml><![endif]--><\/p>\n<h1 class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center;\">Reuters &#8212; June 6, 2013<\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/wreckaage-of-bombed-tour-bus.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-72919\" title=\"Wreckaage of bombed tour bus. Click to enlarge\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/wreckaage-of-bombed-tour-bus-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/wreckaage-of-bombed-tour-bus-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/wreckaage-of-bombed-tour-bus.jpg 464w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Bulgaria backed down on Wednesday from charges it made a few months ago that Hezbollah was behind a deadly bus bombing on its territory, complicating a British push for the EU to blacklist the militant Shi&#8217;ite Muslim group.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The country&#8217;s new Socialist-led government said it only had an &#8220;indication&#8221; that the Lebanese group might have carried the attack that killed five Israeli tourists and their driver in the Black Sea resort of Burgas last year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">This alone, Foreign Minister Kristian Vigenin said, did not justify any European Union move to list it as a terrorist group.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;It is important that the (EU) decision be based not only on the bombing in Burgas because I think the evidence we have is not explicit,&#8221; Vigenin, whose government took office last week, told national state radio BNR.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;There is an indication that it is possible (that Hezbollah was behind it) but we cannot take decisions with important consequences for the EU based on indirect data.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Hezbollah has denied any involvement in the Burgas bombing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Britain has argued that evidence from Bulgaria &#8211; and a jail sentence handed down by a Cypriot court in March to a Hezbollah member accused of plotting to attack Israeli interests &#8211; meant the EU should blacklist the group&#8217;s armed wing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Several other EU governments are reluctant, saying the EU needs watertight evidence to impose sanctions that could complicate the EU&#8217;s contacts with Lebanon and add to instability in the Middle East.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Hezbollah is part of a coalition government in Lebanon, and some senior European diplomats warn targeting it could increase turmoil in a country already suffering a spillover of civil war from Syria.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">At a meeting to discuss the issue in Brussels on Tuesday, some governments said they were not ready to back Britain and wanted more proof of Hezbollah&#8217;s involvement in the Burgas attack.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">On Wednesday, a British diplomat defended London&#8217;s push, saying existing evidence from Sofia was sufficient for the EU to act.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;We believe it is appropriate for the EU to designate the military wing of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization,&#8221; the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">In February, the last Bulgarian cabinet, a staunch ally of Washington, urged European governments to take a harder stance towards Hezbollah, after blaming it for the Burgas attack.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The Socialists, then in opposition, accused the center-right government of rushing to implicate Hezbollah without proof and exposing the Balkan country to possible new terrorist attacks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Blacklisting Hezbollah would mark a major policy reversal for the EU, but the idea has gained some traction in recent weeks because of Hezbollah&#8217;s growing involvement in the Syrian conflict.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">(Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova; editing by Andrew Roche)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: &amp;amp;amp; mso-fareast-font-family: &amp;amp;amp; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2013\/06\/05\/us-bulgaria-hezbollah-idUSBRE95416B20130605\">Source <\/a><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite claims that Hezbollah was behind an attack that left 5 Israeli tourists dead in the Black Sea resort of Burgas last year, Bulgarian authorities say they do not have &#8220;explicit&#8221; evidence to confirm the accusation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[88,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-false-flag-attacks","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72917"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73058,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72917\/revisions\/73058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}