Thursday, November 25, 2004

What is the point of proscribing organizations?

Hamas, one of the deadliest of the terrorist organizations, whose avowed aim is the destruction of the state of Israel is on all the interantional proscribed lists. It is, furthermore, one of the organizations that has been terrorizing the Palestinian population under Yasser Arafat and has not exactly gone away there.

So, the West should do its best to bring an end to this group and should not negotiate with it. Right? Wrong. Or so EU foreign affairs supremo, Foreign Minister to be if the Constitution is implemented (and, probably, even if it is not) Javier Solana thinks.

According to a report by Reuter’s he has met Hamas and had various discussions with them, though he was a little vague as to when and where (understandably) but also how often and why.
"I have had direct contact with Hamas but not in the last few days. Those meetings were not long. They were just to pass a clear message of where the international community was."
So, where is the international community? Surely, that is quite easy to lay down without having to discuss world events or, possibly, the weather with terrorists? Or were the meetings set up to clarify Solana’s own opinions?

Jack Straw remains adamant: Britain and the British government does not negotiate with terrorists (except the home-grown variety, of course). Israel considers Hamas to be part of the problem, not part of the solution. One wonders what they think of Solana and the EU in general. Diplomatically, they said nothing on the subject

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