U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell is urging the German government to declare the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah a terrorist organization — something Chancellor Angela Merkel has adamantly opposed until now.

The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday that Grenell “is pressing for the German government to designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization. Sources say he brings it up at every meeting he attends with German officials.”

As Breitbart News columnist Caroline Glick has noted, Germany and the European Union as a whole refuse to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, even though it targets civilians in Israel and Jews around the world. Hezbollah has also fought to support Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime as it murdered hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Glick noted recently (original links):

The EU has also, following Germany’s lead, refused to ban Hezbollah – Iran’s terror proxy – from operating in Europe. Instead, the EU’s policy is to make an artificial distinction between what it refers to as the “military wing” of Hezbollah and what it refers to as Hezbollah’s “political wing.” The fact that even Hezbollah rejects the distinction, and that the so-called “political wing” in Europe raises money for Hezbollah and mobilizes terrorists to join Hezbollah through open indoctrination, is of no interest. Like its Iranian controllers, Hezbollah seeks the obliteration of the Jewish state. When the British parliament voted last week to outlaw Hezbollah’s fake “political wing” from operating in the United Kingdom, the German government was quick to announce that it would not follow suit. Germany — and through it, the rest of continental Europe — will continue to allow the genocidal terror group to operate openly on its soil.

The Post adds: “The Jerusalem Post examined German intelligence reports from 2018 stating Hezbollah operatives recruit new members, transfer funds to the terrorist entity Hezbollah in Lebanon, and spread lethal antisemitic and jihadi ideologies in the federal republic.”

In related news, the Trump administration introduced new sanctions Wednesday on two individuals and three entities due to their links to Hezbollah.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.