EU ministers agree to ban Hamas and freeze assets

EU foreign ministers drew closer to the US position on the Middle East and Iraq at a two-day meeting in Italy over the weekend.

The ministers united among themselves and with the US in agreeing to ban the political wing of Hamas, the Palestinian organisation. France, which had been holding out against this action, agreed to the ban which was linked to a flurry of activity to restart the Middle East peace process.

However, the discussion on Iraq was very low-key, with ministers agreeing to leave the issue, which has been deeply divisive in the past, to the UN Security Council and the four EU members that sit on it France, Britain, Spain and Germany.