A Hamas delegation to Bulgaria has been expelled for posing a “serious threat for national security,” according to Bulgarian security officials. The delegation had been in the country for less than two days, having been invited by Bulgaria’s Center for Global and Middle East Studies. The center’s head, Mohammed Abu Assi, has been criticized for promoting Iran and its proxy Hezbollah inside Bulgaria, and his solicitation of Hamas – another Iranian proxy – was viewed in Sofia and elsewhere as in tension with the European Union’s designation of the group as a terrorist entity. Arabic-language media had initially reported on the visit as a propaganda boon for Hamas, with the delegation reportedly set to meet with Bulgarian government officials. Sofia flatly and almost immediately denied those claims, emphasizing that “there can be no ambiguity about [Hamas] and its [terrorist purposes].”