The Lebanese Hezbollah movement said Wednesday that Israel was leading an international campaign against it, a day after Bulgaria blamed the pro-Iranian group for a July bomb attack that killed five Israeli tourists.
"Israel is leading an international campaign to terrorize nations and people from Hezbollah," said Sheikh Naeem Kassem, the deputy secretary general of the movement, who did not make specific
reference to Bulgaria's accusation during a ceremony in Beirut's southern suburbs.
On Tuesday, the Bulgarian government said two people, holding Canadian and Australian passports and linked to the Lebanese militia movement, were behind the July 2012 Burgas bomb attack.
Kassem stressed that the campaign aims at "cornering" the "Lebanese resistance movement against Israel."
"All these accusations will not change the truth or the realities ... We will not bow to pressures and we will continue our resistance path (against Israel) to protect Lebanon and we will not change our priorities," Kassem was quoted as saying.
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who is close to Hezbollah, said Bulgaria's accusations against Hezbollah were "politically motivated."
The Lebanese government has said it is ready to cooperate with Bulgaria in investigating the attack after receiving all the documents related to the issue from Bulgarian prosecutors.
Earlier Wednesday, an EU spokeswoman said that blacklisting Hezbollah as a terrorist group was an option being considered by the European Union.
"Hezbollah is not on the list of the terrorist organizations. The EU and member states will look into several options - this is one of them, but not the only one," said Maja Kocijancic, a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.