Hamas European Tour
By granting a visa to Hamas “refugee minister” Atef Edwane, Sweden has made it possible for him to visit any other European country that belongs to the Schengen Accord—and Edwane said today that he’s planning to visit four more European countries after Sweden.
STOCKHOLM (AFP) - A minister of the Hamas-led Palestinian government, Atef Edwane, said during a visit to Stockholm that he would visit four other European countries on a visa delivered by Sweden.
Edwane was allowed into the Scandinavian country in the face of protests from Israel and France to attend a conference on Palestinian exiles.
“I will visit four countries,” Edwan told AFP on Tuesday after meeting with Swedish lawmakers despite a European Union policy of no contact with the movement.
Sweden and 14 other European countries have agreed, under the so-called Schengen accord, that a visa delivered by any of them is valid for all others. The other Schengen countries are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Spain.
Edwane declined to say which four countries he was planning to visit before his visa expires on May 16.