- (Reuters) -- European Union leaders have repeated their
condemnation of Israel for killing Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, hours
after the United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution denouncing
the assassination.
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- In a statement issued at the end of a summit in Brussels,
the leaders of the EU's 25 current and future states said the bloc had
"consistently opposed extra-judicial killings".
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- Washington, alone among major powers in not condemning
this week's assassination as an extrajudicial killing, rejected the resolution
by Arab nations because it did not also denounce Sheikh Yassin's group
Hamas for suicide bombings in Israel.
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- The US's "no" vote killed the resolution because
it is one of the five permanent members of the council with veto power.
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- Britain, Germany and Romania abstained after Algeria,
negotiating for Arab nations, rejected an amendment they wanted that would
have condemned "atrocities" against Israelis.
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- The EU leaders said they had "repeatedly condemned
terrorist atrocities against Israelis and recognised Israel's right to
protect its citizens against terrorist attacks", but Sheikh Yassin's
killing had deepened the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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- "The present cycle of retaliatory violence has...
inflamed the situation and is taking the parties even further from a negotiated
settlement," they said.
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- Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, whose country currently
holds the presidency of the EU, said one of the problems with UN resolutions
on the Middle East was that - to be passed - they had to include a condemnation
of suicide bombings.
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- "Not having that in the resolution brought the problem,"
he told a news conference.
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- The EU leaders also said in their statement that they
would not recognise any unilateral change in the borders Israel had before
the 1967 Middle East war.
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- Israel is building a barrier in the West Bank it says
is vital to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers.
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- The Palestinians call it a land-grab that deprives them
of territory they want for a state.
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- © 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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- http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1075010.htm
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