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Conceding to Israel; U.S. Renews Dubbing Hamas, Hezbollah as "Terrorist"
WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - In a quick response to hardline Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's discontent over the inclusion of Arab states int e "war against terrorism", the U.S. State Department issued an updated list of 28 terrorist organizations, renewing the designation to Israeli occupation resistance groups Hamas and Hezbollah, reported the
Washington Post.
The new department list includes the Real IRA, an Irish group, and the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a Colombian right-wing paramilitary group.
The al Qa'eda, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan were also included.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell dropped two groups - the Japanese Red Army and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement - because they have not been active since the last State Department list was issued two years ago, said the paper.
But Powell said the removal does not condone their past activities.
The State Department is required by legislation enacted by Congress in 1996 to designate foreign terrorist organizations.
It is illegal for people in the United States to provide material support to groups on the list, and the law requires U.S. financial institutions to block assets held by them. It also enables the United States to deny visas to representatives and members of these groups.
The previous list had been due to expire on October 8th.
Other groups included on the list include the Palestine resistance group Islamic Jihad, the Tamil Tigers, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the Basque ETA, the Abu Nidal Organization, the Aum Shinrikyo and the Kurdish PKK.
Earlier Saturday, Sharon moved to avoid a rift with Washington as Sharon advisor Dore Gold scrambled to strike a conciliatory tone Friday after Washington's scathing criticism of remarks made by Sharon that in its "war against terrorism" the U.S. was conceding to Arab states as the world conceded to the Nazis in 1938 over Czechoslovakia.
U.S. President George W. Bush pledged his support for the eventual establishment of an independent Palestinian state this week, a major move by the U.S., which has for decades avoided holding Israel to the same international standards as other illegally occupying powers.
Sharon criticized Bush's statement recognizing the right for Palestinians to have a state free of illegal occupation, as called for by international U.N. resolutions and called on the U.S. not to "appease Arab states at Israel's expense."
Washington took Sharon to task Friday, calling his statement and lack of recognition of the Palestinians as "unacceptable" comments on U.S. policy in the Middle East, while a last-ditch Palestinian effort to salvage a ceasefire was shaken by further violence as several Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire.
At a press conference Thursday night, Sharon told Bush that in forging his coalition against terrorism that he should not try "to appease the Arabs at our expense. We won't accept it."
He called on the Western democracies "not to commit again the terrible mistake made in 1938 when European democracies "sacrificed" Czechoslovakia.
"Israel will not be Czechoslovakia," he warned in an allusion to the 1938 Munich conference, when European powers yielded to German dictator Adolf Hitler and allowed him to take over part of Czechoslovakia.
In response, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said that Powell told Sharon in a phone call Friday that Bush had deemed his comments about appeasing Arabs at Israel's expense "unacceptable".
Amid the flap, the Palestinian leadership called on their people to respect the fragile ceasefire with Israel to protect "the national interest".
"Those who violate the decision to cease fire commit a serious act which harms the national interest and gives ideal cover for the Israeli government to complete its expansionist project," the leadership said after its weekly meeting in the Gaza Strip.
Five Palestinians were killed and 17 others were wounded after Israeli tanks, backed by helicopters, entered Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank city of Hebron before dawn Saturday, police and hospital sources said.
Witnesses said the five were killed as an Israeli helicopter blasted a house with a missile.
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