CAIRO, 8 September 2003 - Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher voiced fears yesterday that Israel would use the European Union’s new hard-ine on the militant group Hamas to wage more attacks in the Palestinian territories.
“Israel must not exploit any decision taken by the EU as a pretext to pursue its practices which are extremely dangerous,” Maher told reporters, with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana standing by him. “We are hoping for a firmer position from all parties faced with Israeli practices,” he added. During a meeting in Italy on Saturday, EU foreign ministers agreed to blacklist the political wing of the radical Palestinian group Hamas and freeze its assets.
Solana said meanwhile that the European Union hoped Hamas could enter the political mainstream. “All would like very much, and we’ve said many times, to have Hamas as a political organization, breaking ... ties with terrorist activities and at the same time becoming a political party,” he said. Solana said that during his visit here, which included a meeting with President Hosni Mubarak, he discussed the resignation of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas who was caught in a power struggle with Yasser Arafat. Both Maher and Solana expressed hope that the power struggle would be resolved and Abbas could return to his duties.
The EU foreign policy chief said that Abbas had “made huge achievements and tremendous efforts in four months (since he took office). He has not received all the help he expected to receive and we hope he will have the chance and possibility to have what he had in mind realized,” he added.
Maher added that Egypt was “pursuing contacts with all Palestinian parties” to end the power struggle and was convinced that “all parties in the conflict were concerned about the Palestinian national interest” and would do everything to prevent peace efforts from being torpedoed. Both officials called for saving the road map for peace backed by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, which calls for the creation of a Palestinian state living in peace with Israel by 2005. “The road map is the only document we have and the best way to keep the peace process alive,” Solana said.
Meanwhile, leading Muslim clerics and members of Palestinian and Lebanese Islamist groups gathered in Sidon yesterday to express support for Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, who narrowly escaped an Israeli attempt to kill him. Dozens of Muslim clerics held a sit-in in Sidon’s Zaatari mosque following a call from the mufti of southern Lebanon Sheikh Mohammed Salim Jalaleddine.
