U.S. State Dep’t Designates Hamas Official, Syrian Insurgent as Terrorists
The State Department said on Friday it had designated the leader of a group of French foreign fighters in Syria and a senior Hamas official as specially designated global terrorists, a move that freezes their U.S. assets.
The State Department described the first man, Omar Diaby, as the leader of a group of about 50 foreign terrorists in Syria that has taken part in terrorist operations with Nusra Front, an insurgent group that has renamed itself Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.
The second man, identified as Fathi Ahmad Mohammad Hammad, is a former Hamas interior minister, a position he used to coordinate terrorist cells, the department said in a separate statement.
Hammad is a member of the political leadership of Hamas, an Islamist terror group that has controlled Gaza since 2007.
In a statement issued in Gaza, Hammad said the decision to list him as a terrorist came hours after Washington announced $38 billion in military aid to Israel over the next decade, a step that he said made the United States “the biggest supporter of Zionist terrorism.”
“Such decisions that are biased in favor of the occupation represent a new black chapter in the record of the … American administration,” he said.
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