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Berlin, London Seek to Add Hezbollah to E.U. Terror List: Report
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| Hezbollah attacks are aimed at liberating land and defending against Israeli aggression.
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BERLIN
,
June 30 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) -
Britain
and
Germany
are pushing to have the Lebanese Islamic resistance movement Hezbollah
added to the European Union's list of groups considered as terrorist,
the Welt am
Sonntag newspaper reported in its Sunday, June 30th
edition.
However,
it said Sweden, France,
Greece, Spain and Belgium are opposed to the idea, and all 15 E.U.
nations would have to back such a move for it be approved, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Hezbollah
spearheaded the struggle against
Israel
's
occupation of southern
Lebanon
,
which led to an Israeli troop withdrawal in May 2000. It is included
on a similar list of terrorist groups maintained by the U.S.
State Department, and
Israel
has asked that it be added to the E.U. list.
On
June 17, the European Union added the Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine (PFLP) and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade to its blacklist,
the first time the E.U.
has branded as “terrorist” resistance movements close to Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat.
The
PFLP has been dubbed “terrorist” for killing extreme right-wing
Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi, in retaliation for
Israel
’s
earlier assassination of PFLP head Abu-Ali Mustafa in his office.
Mustafa
was killed in an Israeli missile attack on his office in the
West
Bank
town of
Ramallah
,
not far from the offices of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
In
April, Lebanese officials frostily rejected a warning from U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell that so-called "aggressive
actions" from southern
Lebanon
against
Israel
could lead to wider
Middle
East
conflict.
Lebanese
President Emile Lahoud told Powell that Hezbollah attacks on Israeli
forces in a disputed border area were not terrorist acts but
legitimate resistance against occupation, Lebanese Foreign Minister
Mahmud Hammud said.
Lahoud
also told Powell that a recent escalation in such attacks was the
fault of recent Israeli military offensives in the Palestinian
territories that have enraged the Arab world.
"President
Lahoud stressed that developments in the region cannot be isolated
from the Lebanese scene, mainly given
Israel
's
escalation of its aggression on the Palestinians in Palestinian
territories," Hammud said.
In
comments that summarized Lahoud's talks with Powell, Hammud added that
Israel
had not complied with U.N. resolutions by withdrawing its troops from
Arab land. "
Israel
bears the complete responsibility for the ongoing deterioration,"
he said. "The [Lebanese] resistance and the Intifada became the
only means to force
Israel
to implement these resolutions."
Lahoud
called on
Washington
"to look at the situation with objectivity and realism, and not
to be affected by Israeli pressures and positions that present the
Lebanese resistance in Shebaa Farms as terrorist acts," Hammud
said.
Hezbollah
are fighting Israeli forces holding the Shebaa Farms Israel seized
from
Syria
in the 1967 war and now claimed by
Beirut
with
Damascus
'
consent.
The
U.S. State Department has designated Hezbollah a "foreign
terrorist organization" and subjected the group's members to
financial and travel sanctions.
Since
Israel
stepped up its military offensives with military incursions into the
West
Bank
in March, the Hezbollah attacks have increased.
Despite
Hammud's sharp words, Powell forged ahead with his message of
restraint. "The
United
States
remains concerned about continuing violence across the Blue
Line," he said, referring to the U.N. demarcation line drawn to
mark the border after
Israel
's
troop pullout from southern
Lebanon
in May 2000.
"There
is a very real danger of the situation along the border widening the
conflict throughout the region," said Powell, who got a
first-hand look at the area in question from the Israeli side when he
met with commanders of
Israel
's
northern command in Safed.
Powell
later brought the same point to
Damascus
where he met with Syrian President Bashar el-Assad and Foreign
Minister Faruq el-Shara.
Syria
has not commented on the recent upsurge in Hezbollah attacks, but
political sources in
Beirut
have stressed that
Damascus
views such attacks as aimed at "liberating land and defending
against Israeli aggression."
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