WASHINGTON, March 21: The United States on Thursday formally designated the Palestinian Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades a “foreign terrorist organization”, just hours after the group claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing in occupied Al Quds.

The move will bar any members of the group, a radical offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, from obtaining US visas and prohibit any fund-raising operations it may have in the United States.

The move, which Israel and Jewish groups in the United States have been urging for some time, has been under consideration, but had not been expected to be announced until next week.—AFP

Our Correspondent in Paris adds: With the opening this week of the annual session of the UN Commission on Human Rights, Israel is expected to be condemned severely for several human rights violations.

The condemnations concern the systematic violation of human rights by Israeli occupying forces in Palestine, also the illegal occupation of the Golan and Southern Lebanon — texts to be presented by several Arab states — but also the illegal establishment of colonies by the Israelis, a text quite surprisingly to be introduced by the European Union.

Although in past years several complaints were lodged against Israel, this year will be the first in more than a half-century where the United States will not be present to oppose its veto to any condemnation of Israel.

The US was excluded from the Commission last year during a surprise vote, but is expected to return next year. Still, US representatives have been present at Geneva to lobby not only against any condemnation of Israel, but also to suggest that a text condemning Cuba be also presented during the session.