The European Union is unlikely to bow to U.S. pressure to brand Hizbullah a “terrorist organization” in the wake of EU member Bulgaria blaming the Lebanese group for an attack that killed five Israeli tourists, diplomats said Wednesday.

New U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has urged the EU to follow Washington's lead by designating Hizbullah as a terrorist group in a move that will notably lead to a crackdown on its fund-raising activities.

Hizbullah denounced Israel on Wednesday for waging an "international campaign" against it after Bulgaria said the Lebanese party was behind a July bombing that killed five Israeli tourists.

Sheikh Naim Qassem, the group's number two, slammed the "international campaign of intimidation waged by Israel against Hizbullah," and said it is "ever improving its equipment and training" and that "these charges will change nothing."

The March 14 General Secretariat warned on Wednesday that Bulgaria's accusation against Hizbullah in the 2012 bus attack will have political and non-political repercussions on Lebanon, especially if the European Union decided to label the party as a terrorist group.

It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “The Lebanese people refuse to become hostages of Hizbullah and have their interests compromised.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun expressed hope on Wednesday that “extremists” will fail to control a large swath of the Lebanese.

Following talks with a Hizbullah delegation headed by Ghaleb Abu Zainab, Aoun hailed the understanding reached with the party in 2006.

The electoral subcommittee resumed on Wednesday discussions over the new electoral law as several MPs representing the bickering blocs are holding crunch talks in an attempt to reach common ground over the matter.

The subcommittee chairman MP Robert Ghanem described the meeting as “positive,” saying that all members were objective and impartial in their discussions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told relatives of victims of last year's attack on Israeli tourists in Bulgaria that those responsible for the killings "will pay the price."

Netanyahu's office said Wednesday in a statement that the head of Israel's counterterrorism bureau told the victims' families in his name that "Israel will do everything so that those responsible for the crime will pay the price."

The Maronite Bishops council noted on Wednesday that the civil marriage debate in Lebanon should be approached from constitutional and religious perspectives, saying that this form of union was addressed in the constitution.

It said: “Those who marry in a civil union must complement it was a religious ceremony.”

The European Union now faces the difficult task of dealing with demands to designate Hizbullah as a terrorist organization after Bulgaria announced Tuesday that the Lebanese party was behind a bomb attack in July that killed five Israeli tourists and one Bulgarian.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement that the EU should “respond robustly to an attack on European soil.”

Kidnappers are demanding a 3-million-dollar ransom in return for freeing a Lebanese businessman abducted in the southern city of Tyre, the National News Agency and Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) reported on Wednesday.

NNA said that Najib Youssef, 66, was heading on Tuesday afternoon from his house in Bourj al-Shamali in his four-wheel Cadillac to a land he owns in Abou Aswad when several gunmen took him away.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi is expected to hold a mass on St. Maroun day in the northern city of Tripoli, media reports said on Wednesday.

Al-Rahi will head to Tripoli on Friday afternoon as the mass will be held at St. Maroun Church.