Can Nicolas Sarkozy Destroy Hezbollah?

Matthew Levitt from counterterrorismblog thinks so.

Sarkozy could lead the way to get the EU to designate Hezbollah properly, as a terrorist group. He sees them differently than Chirac saw them. He sees terrorism differently than Chirac saw terrorism.

How Nicolas Sarkozy could destroy Hezbollah
By Matthew Levitt

In today's The New Republic Online, Mike Jacobson and I argue that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is uniquely positioned to lead the way forward toward a European Union designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist group. Here's why:

The United States and Europe have long disagreed on how to categorize Hezbollah. While the U.S. government designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization a decade ago, the European Union has not. Doing so would require the consensus of all 27 member states, and several countries have been opposed, including Spain, Belgium, and, in particular, France. The French have cited a number of reasons for their resistance, including Hezbollah's role as a political party in Lebanon and the fear of upsetting Lebanon's tenuous domestic political balance.

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