The backbiting shall begin shortly.
The Euros are the ones with a problem on this one. I think part of our setting up the "roadmap" was the cut the ground out from under them. It is one of the reasons that the EU did this:
EU Joins U.S. in Denouncing Hamas as Terrorist Group
Sat September 6, 2003 11:26 AM ET
RIVA DEL GARDA, Italy (Reuters) - European Union foreign ministers denounced the political wing of Hamas as a terrorist organization on Saturday following the group's claim of responsibility for a truce-shattering bomb attack in Jerusalem.
The decision, long sought by both Israel and the United States, opens the way for Europe to freeze the group's assets and place its leaders on a terrorist blacklist.
"A consensus emerged to decide on putting Hamas on the list of terrorist organizations," French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told reporters, dropping France's earlier objections to outlawing the Palestinian militant movement.
Hamas incurred the EU's wrath after it said it was behind the August 19 suicide bombing which killed 22 Israelis and pushed the Middle East's precarious peace process to the verge of collapse.
But a Hamas official decried the EU decision to brand it a terrorist organization.
Ismail Haniya was speaking to Arabic television Al Jazeera after what he said was an Israeli assassination attempt against himself and Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in the Gaza strip.
"Let the world and let the EU, which is discussing placing Hamas on the terrorist list, witness this attack. We say to the Europeans you must be just and place the Zionist enemy on the top of the global terrorist group list," Haniya said.
Yassin and about 15 others were wounded in an Israeli air strike, the latest in a series of military attacks against Hamas since the Jerusalem bus bombing.
The Palestinian militant group is opposed to the state of Israel and has carried out suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis since a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation began about three years ago.
A group of EU intelligence experts will start work on Monday to determine what action should be taken against Hamas.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose country has long urged the EU to join the United States in banning the political wing, suggested there would be swift financial repercussions.
"There was complete agreement that, given the outrage perpetrated by Hamas...on the 19th of August and which killed so many innocent people and for which there was no conceivable justification, we've taken a political decision to freeze the assets of Hamas and other actions," he said.
Israel hailed the EU decision.
"It is about time that the whole of Hamas was put on the terrorist list and we hope this step and others will eventually stop Hamas's activities," said Haim Assaraf, spokesman for the Israeli embassy to the EU in Brussels.
The EU last year put Hamas's military wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, on its terrorist blacklist but held back from ostracizing the political wing, with France arguing that it had a potential role to play in peace efforts.
Paris also said it provided much-needed social services to the Palestinian people.
However, recent events have hardened attitudes within the EU, which is the largest aid donor to the Palestinian authorities.
"I have seen in the electronic media Hamas's political leader calling several times for a break with the truce and if a political leader can give military orders then I cannot really see where one starts and the other begins," said Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller.
asia.reuters.com |
