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EU Joins U.S. in Denouncing Hamas as Terrorist Group
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RIVA DEL GARDA, Italy (Reuters) - European Union (news - web sites) foreign ministers on Saturday denounced the political wing of Hamas as a terrorist organization 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 the freezing of the group's assets and its leaders being placed 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 earlier French objections to outlawing the Palestinian group.


Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said a group of intelligence services from member countries would on Monday start examining Hamas and then make recommendations about how to blacklist the organization.


"There is complete political agreement...but it is not for us (ministers) to put it on the list," he told reporters.


"That is the so-called clearing house, a group of experts, which examine if a group of people should be on the list. It is their decision."


The EU last year put Hamas's military wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades on its blacklist of banned terrorist organizations, a step which implies freezing of a group's assets and possible prosecution of its activists.


British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose country had pushed for the EU to join the United States in banning the political wing, joined France in suggesting that the blacklisting decision was as good as taken.


"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.

Ironduke

What took so long?

It's not as if the political and military wing are seperate entities as the Euros seemed to treat them. The politic wing is just the public face of the terrorist organization.

Blackclaw

What clued them in? The fiery explosions perhaps?

markaspen

Now Jack Straw of the UK is a piece of work.
""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

Is this supposed to be in comparison to previous attacks that had justification?

So what do folks think (Big Ross, one response per 5 messeges please. :p )

Is exiling Arafat counter-productive?

Should Israel decapitate Hamas in its entirity, or will it be like going after the VC?

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Pa'am Tzanhan, Tamid Tzanhan.

ChrisF202

wipe them off the face of the Earth

Praxus

What Israel should do is capture Arafat and his buddys, try them, and then have a public hanging in the West Bank for all the Palestinians to see.