Britain is placing increased pressure on its European Union partners to formally blacklist parts of Hezbollah as a terror organization:

A British drive to blacklist the militant Lebanese movement’s armed wing was discussed twice by a special EU group last month, but British diplomats failed to win over a number of skeptical governments which fear the step would fuel instability in the Middle East. Britain, backed by France, Germany and the Netherlands, has now asked for the issue to be put on the agenda of the next meeting of foreign ministers on July 22, believing it needs to be debated at a more senior, “political” level to achieve a breakthrough, diplomats said.

The diplomatic maneuvering comes months after E.U. diplomats began privately acknowledging that new evidence of multiple terror plots conducted by the Iran-backed group on E.U. soil made it difficult to sustain objections to imposing such a designation. The new evidence included additional disclosures by Bulgarian authorities tying Hezbollah to the July 2012 bus bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria that killed five Israelis and a Bulgarian, alongside the Cypriot conviction of a confessed Hezbollah member on terror-related charges.

Last week Bulgaria’s new government reiterated Sofia’s stance that Hezbollah was linked to the bombing:

“There is no change in the Bulgarian stance on the act of terror in Sarafovo. My expert opinion, as I am acquainted with the conclusions and the facts, gathered up to now in the investigation, is that the announced stance of my colleagues is right and I support it,” the Interior Minister stated. Yovchev added that the recent collection of “additional evidence” on the matter also leads to the conclusion that Hezbollah is responsible for the bus bombing that killed five Israeli tourists and their Bulgarian bus driver.

E.U. diplomats – including and especially those from Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Germany – have been increasingly public about their efforts to sway holdouts to blacklisting Hezbollah’s military wing. This week Washington Institute fellow and counterterrorism expert Matthew Levitt addressed the E.U. Parliament regarding Hezbollah’s terror activities on the Continent, which he traced back decades.

[Photo: journalforeignrelations / Flickr]