لبنان

The war in Syria has exposed the group's true strategic interests, which it has sought to secure through heavy involvement in the fighting.

Focusing on just one facet of Hezbollah is a political distinction of convenience that will limit efforts to target the group's finances, but the EU ban is still a useful step.

Recent street battles, bombings, and political defections mark the beginning of the end of Hezbollah's relative impunity in Lebanon, potentially heralding protracted violence.

A G8 statement against Hezbollah would shine a spotlight on the group's widespread terrorist and criminal activities in a way few other multilateral agencies could.

Hezbollah's commitment to the Syrian conflict will likely change the course of the war.

In late April, the Obama administration blacklisted two Lebanese money exchanges for allegedly facilitating Hezbollah's use of narcotics trafficking profits to fund terrorist activities. In an email interview, Matthew Levitt, director of the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute and author of the forthcoming Hezbollah: The

As Syria heads toward a meltdown spilling over its borders -- with loss of control over strategic weapons, accelerated refugee flows, spreading extremism, and Sunni-Shiite clashes -- only engaging with those doing the fighting will give Washington much influence over events.

Recent cases, including the July 2012 bus bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria, have forced reluctant European leaders to seriously debate the issue of banning Hezbollah.

Sign up for live event broadcast alerts from The Washington Institute On March 7, 2013, Andrew J. Tabler, Jeffrey White, and Simon Henderson addressed a Policy Forum at The Washington Institute to discuss their recent trips to Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Israel, and the Persian Gulf. Mr. Tabler is a senior