Hezbollah And Hamas Should Be Engaged
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Courtesy Of: The Jerusalem Post
By: The Associated Press
Posted: Aug. 29, 2006
Updated: Aug. 30, 2006

Rome, Italy--The Italian Foreign Minister said that groups such as Lebanese guerrillas Hezbollah and Palestinian militants Hamas are not purely terrorist organizations and that efforts to bring them into the political fold should be encouraged.

"Hamas and Hezbollah are not Al-Qaeda," Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said, in an interview with Corriere della Sera published Tuesday.

"Besides their well-known responsibilities for terrorist actions, they have a political side, they are engaged in assistance."

"IRA and ETA have become political movements from (being) terror groups," D'Alema said, referring to groups that have carried out terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland and in Spain.

"We must encourage this metamorphosis in the Middle East," D'Alema said.

"Instead, organizations that are purely dedicated to terror must be fought and defeated," he told Corriere, the country's leading newspaper.

Both Hezbollah and Hamas are on a U.S. list of terror organizations. The European Union considers Hamas a terrorist organization but does not list Hezbollah.

Source:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525966123&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull