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Bulgaria: Hezbollah Operative Owned Printer Tied to Fake July 2012 Bus Bombing Docs

by TheTower.org Staff |

Bulgaria has presented new evidence to the E.U. implicating Hezbollah in the July 2012 Burgas, Bulgaria bus bombing that killed five Israelis and a Bulgarian. The disclosure comes during a meeting convened at the request of the U.K. to decide whether the E.U. will blacklist the Iran-backed group:

A Bulgarian representative to the European Union said Wednesday that investigators have discovered that a Hezbollah operative was the owner of a printer used to produce fake documents that facilitated the July 19, 2012 bombing of a bus filled with Israeli tourists in Burgas. Five Israelis and their Bulgarian driver were killed in the attack…

“The Bulgarians put new evidence on the table during this meeting,” the diplomat said. “Their representative said the printer had been sold to someone from Hezbollah.”… In February, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, the Bulgarian interior minister at the time, said there was “well-grounded” evidence that Hezbollah was behind the attack. He reportedly added that Bulgarian investigators traced a printer that had produced two forged licenses back to Lebanon, but he did not say the printer was owned by Hezbollah.

The presentation is one of a series of moves Sofia has made to reaffirm a February announcement first linking Hezbollah to the bombing:

Bulgaria alarmed many of its EU partners this month when Foreign Minister Kristian Vigenin, from the new Socialist government, backed away from that stance and questioned whether there was enough proof of Hezbollah’s role.

However, since then Bulgaria has been lobbied by other EU states and has decided to change direction again, according to two Western diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It seems that the new government has been testing its limits and has tried to see how far it may go, but once they got a reaction they quickly stepped back,” one diplomat said. The second diplomat said: “Vigenin has now stated publicly that the position of Bulgaria is unchanged. I believe the government will stick to this position.”

Britain, France, and Germany have all expressed support for designating Hezbollah’s military wing, while several other countries – including Austria, the Czech Republic, and Italy – continue to block efforts to secure the blacklisting.

A decision to designate Hezbollah would require unanimity among the E.U.’s 27 member states.

[Photo: CBSOnlineNews / Youtube]

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