FIGHTIN’ WORDS

EU Condemns Lebanon’s Hezbollah

Iran calls move “surprising and unacceptable.”

Nobody likes to be caught off-guard—probably Iran least of all. The Iranian foreign minister on Tuesday hit back against the European Union’s blacklist of Lebanon’s military wing of Hezbollah on Monday. Calling it “surprising and unacceptable,” Ali Akbar Salehi blamed “some influential members” of the EU and said that Israel—who cheered the decision—would be the main beneficiary. While the EU in the past has resisted U.S. calls to blacklist Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the coalition’s action on Monday came after pressure from Britain and the Netherlands, which were seeking retribution after accusing Hezbollah of being involved in last year’s bus bombing in Bulgaria that killed five Israelis and their driver.