Israel Matzav

Bulgaria's unwanted guests

The Bulgarian government is doing everything it can to dissociate itself from a visit to its country by Hamas 'legislators' this past week. Hamas, unlike Hezbullah, has been named a designated terror organization by the European Union.

The Bulgarian government flatly rejected on Thursday meetings between official representatives of the government and Hamas. Vessela Tcherneva, the spokeswoman for the Bulgarian foreign ministry, told the Jerusalem Post that “the news about an official visit of Hamas is wrong and false” and no one has invited Hamas from the side of the government."

She added that the Hamas representatives are “on a private visitation of a NGO” in Sofia.

A spokeswoman for Israel’s Ambassador to Bulgaria, Shaul Kamisa Raz, conveyed a statement to the Post from Israel’s top envoy. Raz said,” Hamas is recognized as a terror organization by the EU.

There can be no ambiguity about this group and its purposes. As for this recent visit to Bulgaria, we are looking into this. In order to understand the exact circumstances under which this visit took place,we prefer not to make any further comments at this point." Ismail al-Ashkar, head of the Hamas parliamentary list, Change and Reform, headed the delegation.

Hamas legislators Salah Bardaweel and Mushir al-Masri, who is also a spokesman for the Islamist movement in the Gaza Strip, accompanied him. The three Hamas officials arrived in Bulgaria at the invitation of the Center for International and Middle East Studies, sources close to the movement said.

Read the whole thing. 

You still have to wonder why the Bulgarian government allowed them in.

Labels: Bulgaria, European Union, Hamas, Palestinian terrorism

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:49 AM