The Bush administration has acknowledged failure in
winning full cooperation from the European Union in halting financing to
Hamas and other Middle East groups deemed as terrorists.
U.S. officials said the EU has placed Al Qaida and related groups on the
European list of terrorist sponsors. But the EU has failed to act against
insurgency groups linked to the Arab-Israeli conflict, Middle East Newsline reported.
The officials said the EU insists on distinguishing between the political and
military activities of insurgency groups.
The result has been a slowdown in international efforts
to halt financing to Al Qaida and its satellite organizations in the Middle
East.
A key dispute between the United States and the EU regards Hamas,
officials said. They said the EU maintains a distinction between the
military and political wings of the Palestinian group.
"There are some countries that make a distinction between the political
wing of Hamas and the military wing of Hamas," Treasury Undersecretary Jimmy
Gurule said. "Unless the U.S. government can provide information that traces
money directly to the military wing that is supporting suicide bombings in
the Middle East, there is some reluctance, or in some cases unwillingness,
to go ahead and designate those individuals or entities. And it's a very
difficult diplomatic and political problem with respect to those countries."
Gurule told the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday that he did not
have a list of EU countries that have refused to cooperate with the United
States. But other officials said France presents a key difficulty.
The result is that EU countries are refusing to freeze assets of those
financing Hamas, officials said. The Islamic movement is said to obtain tens
of millions of dollars a year from Iran and Saudi Arabia as well as
individuals.
The EU has placed the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade on terrorist list. The
Fatah-dominated umbrella group is said to be responsible for much of the
insurgency attacks in the current war with Israel.
Officials said the United States and EU also differ on Iran. They said
the EU has refused to halt investments in Iran, cited as a terrorist sponsor
by the State Department. U.S. law prevents major investments in Iran's
energy sector.
Undersecretary of State Alan Larson told the committee that the
administration is pressing Gulf Cooperation Council states to draft and
implement tough measures to halt the private financing of Islamic insurgency
groups. He said Kuwait and Saudi Arabia "have indicated plans to take some
serious action" to ensure that charities don't raise money for groups deemed
as terrorists.
"I'm going to the Gulf shortly, and Dubai is one of the places I'm going
to go. And one of the conversations we intend to have is, you know, what
further steps can be taken to strengthen surveillance and oversight in the
banking system about the money that moves in and out?"
