Friday, February 15, 2013

15-Feb-13: Quote of the day: Hamas heavy, speaking on the morning of his colleagues' expulsion, says Europe is ready to un-ban Hamas

From a news report published today on the website of the non-governmental, European-funded Bethlehem-based Ma'an News Agency, Hamas official Ahmad Yousef' is quoted today saying
that his party's visit to Bulgaria could presage moving Hamas off the EU terrorism list. Saying he had specific information, which he could not yet reveal, Yousef told Ma'an that EU countries had "no reservations against removing Hamas from the terrorism list," with the exception of Germany and the Czech Republic. "There is more than one country in Europe that welcomes Hamas MPs, and this is a good sign," he said. [Maan]
It appears his optimism was expressed before three Hamas figures were ignominiously expelled from the territory of one of those European Union states this morning.

According to a Bulgarian source, that expulsion (we posted about it earlier today) was carried out in Bulgaria by its State Agency for National Security (DANS), after they arrived there on Wednesday. DANS received information "after the group arrived" that they pose a grave threat for Bulgarian national security.

But in the larger sense, the Hamas man has a point. We'll write about how the Europeans are dealing with the sanctioning of Hamas.

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