WASHINGTON, June 24: The United States will ask the European Union to outlaw the political wing of the Palestinian militant movement Hamas at a summit meeting in Washington on Wednesday, a US official said on Tuesday.
The United States has listed Hamas as a whole as a “foreign terrorist organization” for many years but the European Union continues to distinguish between its military activities and its political and social role in the Palestinian territories.
“It’s going to come up at the US-EU summit,” said the US official, who asked not to be named.
US President George W. Bush will have talks in Washington on Wednesday with Romano Prodi, president of the executive European Commission, and Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.
Time magazine said this week that the United States had complained that Paris was turning a blind eye to fund-raising in France by front organizations for Hamas.
But French embassy spokeswoman Natalie Loiseau said the United States had not sent any formal request to France.
Elliott Abrams, a National Security Council senior director, brought up Hamas funding at a presentation for diplomats from European countries this month, diplomats said.
“He had some strong language on Hamas, but it was not in the form of a formal demarche,” one diplomat said.
Loiseau said France tries to stop all fund-raising for “terrorist” groups and monitors closely money transfers to social institutions to ensure the money is properly spent.
Inside the European Union, Britain has taken the US position on the political wing of Hamas, against the French.
At a meeting in Luxembourg last week British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw pressed his EU colleagues to outlaw the political wing but French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said it was a necessary player in the peace process.
The US position is that the Palestinian Authority of Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas should dismantle the infrastructure of Hamas but as a transitional step it has indicated it would settle for a truce by Hamas.
Abbas has been trying to persuade Hamas and other militant groups to call off attacks on Israelis so that work can start on a peace plan backed by the United States.
One US official, who asked not to be named, said the US embassy in Paris had tried to discourage confrontation on the Hamas dispute but the Bush administration insisted that it would not compromise on what it calls terrorists.—Reuters
