Blacklisting Hamas

THE EUROPEAN Union could formalise the blacklisting of the political wing of the radical Islamic group Hamas by the end of the week, a spokesperson said on Monday after preliminary talks on the issue.

Officials began consultations to decide exactly which groups and individuals will be added to the EU terrorist blacklist, after EU foreign minister decided to do so last weekend. EU High Representative Javier Solana said Sunday that the 15-member EU could reverse its decision if Hamas became a legal political party and cut its links with terror.

EU ministers agreed on the blacklisting Saturday during informal talks on Italy's Lake Garda. The decision had been held up for months by a group of EU states including France and Belgium, which argued that it would be counterproductive to the peace process.

Diplomats had pointed out that Hamas's political wing consists of a number of non-military agencies and groups, some of them with social and charity functions, and that a universal ban would hurt ordinary Palestinians.

In statements to the press, Hamas dismissed the EU decision as new evidence of Western belligerence towards Islam. "This decision is a worthless formality," said Hamas leader Abdul-Aziz Al-Rantissi. "It is a declaration of European hostility towards Islam."

Bouteflika cabinet purge

ALGERIAN President Abdelaziz Bouteflika replaced seven ministers in a cabinet reshuffle on Friday, his office announced, amid friction with the leader of the ruling party ahead of presidential elections next year.

Five of the seven ousted ministers are supporters of the secretary general of the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN), Ali Benflis, Algerian newspapers said.

Bouteflika sacked Benflis as prime minister in May and replaced him with Ahmed Ouyahia, after the emergence of sharp differences between the two long-time political allies.

The split was first apparent in March at the annual congress of the FLN, which, under Benflis's leadership, made a stunning comeback in parliamentary elections last year and now controls the legislature.

The FLN re-elected Benflis as its leader and gave him sweeping powers, a move the press has said was understood by Bouteflika to be detrimental to his own ambitions of standing for re-election next spring, although the president has yet to publicly confirm whether he will run for re-election.

The FLN central committee this week proposed Benflis as its candidate for the 2004 presidential elections.

Iranian-UK crisis

SHOTS were fired outside the British Embassy in Tehran early on Tuesday in the second such incident in six days, sparking an angry diplomatic protest and fueling a crisis in relations between London and Tehran. There were no injuries and no immediate sign of any damage to the city centre compound.

"The embassy has strongly protested to the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The security precautions taken by Iranian authorities since the last shooting did not prevent this latest incident," Embassy Spokesman Andrew Greenstock said.

The attacks come amid a souring of relations between London and Tehran over the arrest in Britain last month of a former Iranian ambassador to Argentina, Hadi Soleimanpur.

Soleimanpur was arrested in northeast England on an extradition request from Buenos Aires, which accuses him of involvement in a 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre in Argentina that killed 85 people.

Iran's ambassador to London, Morteza Sarmadi, was called home after the arrest last week.

On Sunday, Iran's foreign ministry said Sarmadi was returning to his post, but warned relations with Britain would only worsen unless Soleimanpur was released.

Terrorist or spy?

A FRENCHMAN suspected of being an Islamic radical linked to a network of suicide bombers told a Moroccan court he was a French intelligence agent and innocent of the charges against him.

"French secret services asked me to investigate Algerian and Moroccan Islamist networks," Pierre Robert, 32, told a hearing in the capital Rabat on Monday night. The French government denied his claims.

Robert, a convert to Islam who was arrested in early June in Tangiers where he lived with his Moroccan wife, is accused of trying to set up a secret Islamic network in northern Morocco and organising training camps for Islamist volunteers.

If found guilty, he faces the death penalty on charges of terrorism, including undermining state security. His trial began on 25 August and a verdict is expected this week.

In Paris, the Interior Ministry said in a statement it was "very surprised" by Robert's claims "and formally denies them".