THE terrorist threat from Hezbollah is at its highest level for 20 years, US security officials have warned, as the European Union mulled the option of listing the group as a terrorist organisation.
Western intelligence agencies believe that the Lebanese group is now more active overseas than at any time since the early 1990s, with attacks planned on Israeli and American tourists.
The warning follows Tuesday's report from Bulgaria that blamed members of Hezbollah's military wing for the bomb attack on a bus carrying Israeli tourists in the Black Sea resort of Burgas last July. Five Israelis and the Bulgarian bus driver were killed, along with one of the bombers.
Funded and armed by Iran, with ties to international drug cartels and crime syndicates in Mexico and West Africa, Hezbollah has expanded its overseas operations.
Hezbollah and Iranian agents have been implicated in recent plots in Cyprus, India, Thailand, Kenya, Azerbaijan, Egypt and South Africa. All were foiled or unsuccessful but the range of targets underscores the group's renewed ambition.
"We are seeing a new scale to Hezbollah's operations overseas that we have not seen," a US State Department official said. "The group has had an international presence for a long time, but now it has near-global reach."
The resurgence in Hezbollah and Iranian plots is motivated by revenge for the assassinations of Iranian nuclear physicists over the past two years. Tehran has blamed Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad, for the killings.
Hezbollah is expected to play a key role in Tehran's response to any attack on its disputed nuclear facilities.
"Hezbollah and Iran are sending a message of what the consequences of a greater confrontation with Iran would be," said Daniel Benjamin, who recently stepped down as the US State Department's top counter-terrorism official.
In Cyprus, the trial continues of Hussam Taleb Yaacoub, a dual Swedish-Lebanese national who was arrested on the island last July and accused of planning an attack on an Israeli bus tour identical to the one in Bulgaria.
The investigation into Mr Yaacoub is alleged to have uncovered extensive information about Hezbollah's operations and recruitment strategy in the Middle East and Europe.
The US, Israel and others have pushed the EU for years to toughen its stance against Hezbollah, but France, Sweden and others have resisted the pressure.
Maja Kocijancic, a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said yesterday that blacklisting Hezbollah was one of several options. "Currently Hezbollah is not on the list of terrorist organisations. As I said, the European Union will look into several options. This is one of them but not the only one," she said.
"There are also actions that can be taken through various channels including, for example, through Europol, Eurojust, judicial action, political and diplomatic measures, and so on."
Europol is the EU's law enforcement agency, and Eurojust is its judicial co-operation unit.
Blacklisting the organisation could open the way for freezing assets linked to Hezbollah in Europe.
Hezbollah itself dismissed the Bulgarian report as an Israeli smear. Naim Qassem, the group's deputy leader, said that Israel had resorted to "allegations and incitements and accusations against Hezbollah" because it had failed to defeat it militarily.
Bulgaria is likely to place the issue on the agenda for a meeting of EU foreign ministers on February 18, several diplomats said.
