LONDON Ñ The European Union plans to deem three Palestinian groups
as terrorists.Euuropean diplomats said the EU will place three Palestinian groups on
its list of terrorist organizations. The diplomats said the move comes amid
U.S. pressure to coordinate in the Washington-led war on terror.
The new additions to the EU list will be the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades,
the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Palestine
Liberation Front. All three groups are on the State Department's list of
terrorist groups.
Al Aqsa is a Fatah-led group which has received Palestinian Authority
funding. The PFLP is based in Damascus and the Arab Liberation Front is
sponsored by the Iraqi regime.
The recommendation for the three groups to be deemed as terrorist will
be relayed to EU foreign ministers who are scheduled to meet in Luxemburg on
Monday. The EU move will block financing to these groups.
The EU group already has deemed as terrorist the military wing of Hamas
and Islamic Jihad. The EU has not listed Hizbullah as a terrist group.
In a related move, the EU has frozen $17.7 million in aid for
the PA. The funding had been blocked amid Israeli accusations that PA
Chairman Yasser Arafat was diverting the EU funds to support Palestinian
insurgents.
