AMMAN Ñ Jordan has acceded to a U.S. request to freeze the
activities of Islamic charities believed linked to Hamas.
Jordanian officials said the kingdom has suspended permits for six Hamas
charities to raise funds and organize activities in Jordan. The officials
said Amman has also suspended activities of five Palestinian organizations
whose assets were frozen by the United States.
The Jordanian move was taken on Monday in wake of European Union and
U.S. decisions to freeze assets of charities linked to Hamas, Middle East Newsline reported. Last week, the
EU agreed to classify the entire Hamas group, rather than just the military
wing, as terrorist.
Jordanian Central Bank governor Amiya Tuqan said authorities have frozen
all activities related to Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin and his deputy Abdul
Aziz Rentisi, who live in Gaza City, and politburo chief Khaled Masha'al,
based in Damascus. Tuqan said the order also included activities that relate
to Hamas politburo members Mussa Abu Marzouq and Imad Alami, also based in
Damascus, and the organization's representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan.
In 1999, Jordan labeled Hamas a terrorist group and deported four of its
leaders. They included Masha'al and Abu Marzouk.
Assuming the unassumable
Those who believe that an unplanned, random "Big Bang" explosion of unknown matter caused the formation of the numberless bodies of the cosmos have more faith that fanatics. They also conveniently ignore some obvious points of information:
Read on . . .
The Hamas organizations affected in Jordan were connected to charities
whose assets were frozen by the United States in August. The U.S. Treasury
Department froze assets of the British-based Palestinian Relief and
Development Fund, or Interpal, as well as alleged Hamas front organizations
in Austria, France, Switzerland, and Lebanon.
Jordanian officials said the regulations ban anybody from dealing with
the 11 organizations linked to Hamas. They said the next step will be to
freeze the assets of the charities.
Islamic opposition leaders said they were stunned by Amman's decision
and accused the kingdom of caving in to Israeli and U.S. pressure. They said
the decision was meant to end the Palestinian war against Israel.
On Monday, 58 Jordanian parliamentarians signed a statement that
condemned the EU classification of Hamas as a terrorist group. The
statement, which said the decision by Brussels favored Israel, was relayed
to the EU representative in Amman.