MLEETA, LEBANON – NOVEMBER 14: The Lebanese and Hezbollah flags fly at the Resistance Museum, a showcase built by the Shi’ite militia group Hezbollah which controls large swaths of southern Lebanon on November 14, 2013 in Mleeta, Lebanon. The museum, which sits on the a hilltop about 90 kilometers from the border with Israel, has already received a half a million visitors since opening in 2010. The sprawling museum features tunnels used by Hezbollah, captured Israeli tanks and walking paths that go through areas where the fighters launched attacks. In 2006 Hezbollah fought a violent month-long war with Israel in which the group fired rockets at Israeli towns and cities while being bombarded daily with missiles from Israeli warplanes. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) (JTA) — Lithuania has banned affiliates of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah from entering its territory.
“Hezbollah-affiliated persons were banned from entering Lithuania,” the BNS news service quoted the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry as saying in a statement on Thursday. The ban will remain in force for 10 years, the ministry said.
Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius thanked Lithuanian and Israeli national security agencies for information that led to the decision.
The European Union, of which Lithuania is a member, considers only Hezbollah’s military wing to be a terrorist group. Hezbollah officials have said the distinction is false and that all the organs of the movement operate in unison.
According to multiple diplomatic sources, the distinction was made at the insistence of France, which has resisted a comprehensive ban on the group because it believes that would harm the EU’s relationship with Lebanon, where Hezbollah is a major political force.
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