US sponsored terrorists assassinate Syrian Cleric with bomb as Obama urges blacklist of Hezbollah

Obama urges world to blacklist Hezbollah
22 March, 2013 – The Daily Star

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: U.S. President Barack Obama demanded Thursday that foreign governments brand Hezbollah a “terrorist organization,” slamming the group for attacks on Israelis.

On the second day of his regional visit, his first to Israel as president, Obama also appealed directly to the Israeli people to put themselves in the shoes of stateless Palestinians and recognize that Jewish settlement activity in occupied territory hurts prospects for peace.

“Every country that values justice should call Hezbollah what it truly is – a terrorist organization,” Obama said in a major speech in Israel, in remarks apparently aimed at the European Union, which has declined to put the group on a list of terrorist movements.

The U.S., which, along with Canada blacklists the Lebanese party as a terrorist organization, has blamed Hezbollah for a bus bombing last July in Bulgaria, in which five Israeli tourists and the local driver were killed.

Bulgarian authorities back this claim, but have produced no evidence to support it. Hezbollah denies involvement in the attack.

Speaking to an audience of Israeli students, Obama added, “the world cannot tolerate an organization that murders innocent civilians, stockpiles rockets to shoot at cities, and supports the massacre of men, women and children in Syria.”

He went on to say that Hezbollah’s ally, “the Assad regime – has stockpiles of chemical weapons,” and that this heightened the urgency to blacklist the Lebanese party.

On the future of Israel and Palestine, Obama acknowledged Israel’s security concerns in a region destabilized by the West’s nuclear standoff with Iran and the civil war in Syria.

But he urged Israel’s younger generation to demand that their politicians take risks for peace in an address interrupted frequently by applause, including a standing ovation for the president during a brief outburst by a heckler.

“You must create the change that you want to see,” he told his young audience.

Obama said only peace could bring true security, but he did not offer any new ideas on how to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, stalled since 2010.
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