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French FM non-committal to blacklisting Hizbullah
 Israel found no ally in France Monday in its efforts to get Hizbullah placed on the European Union's list of terror organizations, diplomatic officials said. Both Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres warned visiting French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier in separate meetings about Hizbullah's attempts to thwart Israeli-Palestinian progress. "Just as Hizbullah destroyed Lebanon, it is also trying in any way possible, including the use of extremist Palestinian elements, to destroy Israel as a Jewish state," Peres said. In recent weeks Israel has been intensively lobbying the EU countries to place Hizbullah on its blacklist, arguing that the organization is doing everything it can to undermine Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and carry out terror attacks in Israel in an attempt to thwart IsraeliĀPalestinian progress. Security officials in recent days have warned both of a Hizbullah attempt to assassinate Abbas and to carry out a major terrorist attack prior to Tuesday's summit in Sharm e-Sheikh. Shalom said that France supported UN Security Council resolution 1559 that called for militias in Lebanon to be dismantled, arguing that Hizbullah is one of those militias. One diplomatic source said that Barnier listened to the arguments, repeated France's traditional line that Hizbullah has a parliamentary faction inside Lebanon, and remained non-committal regarding a possible change in France's position on the issue. Posted by: Fred 2005-02-09 |
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