Jun. 11, 2002
EU may expand list of terror groups
By HERB KEINON
The European Union, under pressure from the US, is considering expanding its list of terror organizations to include Hizbullah, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), diplomatic sources in Jerusalem said yesterday.
According to these officials, the signal's Jerusalem has received over the last few days from various European capitals is that the EU's inclination is to declare these groups terror organizations meaning their assets could be frozen in Europe and making the transfer of money to these groups illegal.
The European Commission is expected to make a recommendation on the matter, which will then come before the EU's foreign ministers, possibly as early as the next meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels later this week.
The EU followed the US lead late last year and published a list of foreign terrorist organizations. That list included Islamic Jihad and Izzadin Kassam, the military wing of Hamas, as well as the Basque separatist organization ETA, Irish Republican Army dissidents, and anti-Catholic groups from Northern Ireland.
Hizbullah, however, was noticeably absent, in large part because of French objections to adding it to the list due to the political role Hizbullah plays in Lebanon. Israel has been lobbying ever since to get Hizbullah, the PFLP, and the Aksa Martyrs Brigades on the list, and the topic is frequently raised in conversations between EU and Israeli officials.
Hizbullah, the PFLP, and the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, which is linked to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, are all already on the US State Department's list of Foreign Terror Organizations.
Freezing the assets of these organizations, and making it more difficult to transfer money to them is "an important tool" in fighting these organizations, the officials said.
Beyond the practical financial impact on these groups, adding the organizations to the list also has symbolic significance, they said. For instance, it is more difficult for these organizations to characterize themselves as freedom fighters or national liberation organizations when they are included on various terror lists.
If the French remove their objections to adding Hizbullah to the list, said the officials, it would be another improvement in ties between Jerusalem and Paris.
According to one official, the forthcoming and positive manner in which French officialdom helped the Israeli Embassy in Paris after the fire that destroyed it last month, as well as a new, less strident tone in the public comments coming from new French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, have helped ease tension lately between the two capitals.
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