May. 23, 2005 19:51  | Updated May. 24, 2005 10:20
EU ties with terror organizations worry Israel
By HERB KEINON
 
Israeli officials told the European Union's anti-terrorism coordinator Gijs De Vries on Monday that Israel is increasingly concerned about a growing European trend to want to either establish or strengthen ties with Hizbullah and Hamas.

De Vries met in Jerusalem Monday with Jeremy Issacharoff, the Foreign Ministry's deputy-director general for strategic affairs. De Vries arrived in Israel to take part in a dialogue on fighting terror, the first of its kind.

Israeli diplomatic officials said Israel viewed gravely a European trend to take advantage of the increasing political profile Hizbullah and Hamas are putting forward in order to establish formal contacts with representatives of these organizations.

According to Israel's assessments, this policy - which has gained strength in the run-up to the Lebanese elections - signals to terrorist groups a waning of the international community's political resolve to fight international terrorism.

Israel's view, as presented to De Vries, was that as long as these organizations continued to be involved in terror acts and in developing and procuring arms, they should not be viewed as political organizations but rather as terrorist groups.

Israel has made it clear to the EU that as part of its obligation to continue fighting terror, it rejects all attempts by the international community to see these organizations as legitimate political parties.

Diplomatic officials said Israel's position was that the international community needed to demonstrate staying-power in this regard and needed to demand of the terror organizations to abandon violence before political contacts could be established.

Israeli attempts two months ago to get the EU to include Hizbullah on its list of terror organizations did not bear any fruit and concern was growing in Jerusalem that as Hamas takes a greater role in the political process in the PA, the voices in Europe calling for the EU to take Hamas off its list of terror organizations will only increase.