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A10 | The
Friday,
WallNovember 6, 2020 - 11/06/2020
Street Journal * **** THE WALL Page
STREET JOURNAL.
: A010

WORLD NEWS
Austria, France Push to Quell Islamists

.
ly
on
After recent terrorist ing tabs on thousands of ex- a town near Paris and another
tremists has also been compli- killed three people at a church
attacks, leaders seek cated by a lack of security in Nice. The suspected perpe-

us l,
unified EU procedures personnel and document-free trator of the Nice attack, a Tu-

e
al a
travel across much of the EU. nisian national, acted just over
to combat extremists The issue is especially a month after landing in Italy

ci on
pressing now as hundreds of to seek asylum.
BY BOJAN PANCEVSKI men who went to fight in They are the latest exam-
Syria and their families—now ples of what has been a long-

er s
VIENNA—Austria and held in Syria, Iraq and Tur- running trend. In November
France are planning a joint key—are expected to return to 2019, Usman Khan, a 28-year-

m er
push for tougher European Europe in coming months. old Islamist, killed two people
Union-wide measures to stamp Kujtim Fejzulai, the gunman in London one year after being

GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO/PRESS POOL

out Islamist extremism on the
continent after terrorist at-
tacks in both countries in re-
cent weeks, officials in Vienna
and Paris said Thursday.
Austrian Chancellor Sebas-
tian Kurz and French Presi-
dent Emmanuel Macron are
expected to hold a videocon-
ference next week with senior
EU officials to discuss steps
ranging from better screening
of asylum seekers to harsher
penalties for citizens who
have fought with extremist
m rp
who killed four people and in- released from prison following
jured many more in the attack his conviction in a bombing
in Vienna on Monday night, plot.
was an Austrian citizen con- Mr. Macron last month an-
co o victed of trying to join Islamic
State. He had been released
nounced a domestic effort to
fight what he called Islamist
n- F
from prison last year after separatism in France and Eu-
serving two-thirds of a 22- rope, echoing a mounting be-
month sentence. lief in France—and now in
The mosque in which Fejzu- Austria—that Islamist radicals
France’s Emmanuel Macron, center, on Thursday, at the border with Spain, announcing more patrols. lai was radicalized was shut have used constitutional
down by the government in speech and religious protec-
“We will create a legal and Mr. Kurz, who said he spoke European governments 2018 along with six other tions to encourage violence.
political framework to fight to Mr. Macron just after the have struggled to deal with prayer houses and an Arabic On Thursday, Mr. Macron
with all our might political Is- Vienna attack, said the pro- radicalized Islamists, given the cultural association accused of said France would double the
no

groups abroad.
The two men want to put
their proposals before other
EU leaders at a Nov. 19 sum-
mit, according to Mr. Kurz and
EU and French officials.
lam—not only as a terrorism
or a law-and-order issue, but
as an ideology that is planting
hatred into young people
across Europe,” Mr. Kurz said
in an interview.
posals would focus on tougher
sentencing for foreign fighters
and supporters of Islamic
State and other terror groups.
A senior French government
official confirmed the plans.
relatively short prison terms spreading radicalism. A court size of its border police and
under European laws for re- overturned the decision, citing called for the EU to do the
turning Islamic State fighters a lack of evidence of extrem- same at the bloc’s external
and for nonviolent terrorism ism and religious freedom. border
crimes such as membership in Last month, a suspected Is- —Noemie Bisserbe in Paris
a banned organization. Keep- lamist decapitated a teacher in contributed to this article.

Kosovo Leader Quits to Face War-Crimes Charges U.S. Plans

BY LAURENCE NORMAN
Kosovo’s President Hashim
Thaci resigned Thursday and
was transferred to The Hague
after being indicted over war-
crimes charges by an interna-
tional tribunal.
Mr. Thaci, a veteran power
broker in the Balkans who has
held top Kosovo posts for
years, said Thursday he would
fight the charges, which in-
clude murder, enforced disap-
pearance of persons, persecu-
tion and torture, dating back
to the wars in the former Yu-
goslavia in the 1990s.
“I don’t want to face the
court as the president. In or-
der to protect the integrity of
the state, therefore, I resign,”
Mr. Thaci said.
The tribunal late Thursday
confirmed that Mr. Thaci,
Kadri Veseli, former speaker of
Kosovo’s parliament, and two
others had been arrested and
taken to the court’s detention
centers in the Netherlands.
Mr. Thaci’s indictment had
been expected for months af-
ter the tribunal’s prosecutor’s
office in June said it was pre-
paring charges against him. At
the time, it accused Messrs.
Thaci and Veseli of seeking to
undermine the investigation.
The move in June came as
Mr. Thaci was on his way to
Washington for White House-
hosted reconciliation talks be-
tween Serbia and its former
province, Kosovo, which de-
clared independence in 2008.
An economic agreement
the late 1990s.
The U.S. and its European
Specialist Chambers has made
a series of arrests in Kosovo,
Sanctions
was eventually sealed between
the former foes in Washington
in September.
allies in 1999 deployed North
Atlantic Treaty Organization
forces to protect mainly Mus-
including in some high-profile
raids, to bring former KLA of-
ficials to The Hague.
On Figure
Mr. Thaci was a leading lim Kosovars from what it
considered ethnic cleansing by
Serbian strongman Slobodan
The tribunal said the
charges related to alleged
crimes committed between
In Lebanon
‘I don’t want Milosevic’s forces. March 1998 and September BY BENOIT FAUCON
to face the Mr. Thaci, a well-connected 1999 against “hundreds of ci- AND DION NISSENBAUM
court as the figure in Washington and other vilians and persons not taking
president,’ Western capitals, has long de- part in hostilities.” The court The Trump administration
Hashim Thaci nied allegations he was in- said victims included political is expected on Friday to im-
said upon his volved in war crimes, including opponents of the KLA, includ- pose sanctions on one of Leba-
resignation. allegations that fighters killed ing the Serbian and Roma pop- non’s most powerful Christian
some prisoners to sell their in- ulations, civilians suspected of politicians in an effort to chip
ternal organs. After going to collaborating with Serb author- away at Hezbollah’s grip on
figure in the political wing of The Hague, he is expected to ities and people who wouldn’t power, according to people
Kosovo’s guerrilla force, the ask to return to Kosovo in join or support the KLA. briefed on the move.
Kosovo Liberation Army, coming weeks to fight the case. Under Kosovo law, a new The U.S. is preparing to
which fought for indepen- In recent weeks, the prose- president can be picked by a sanction former Foreign Minis-
dence from Serbia in a war in cutor’s office of the Kosovo majority in Parliament. ter Gebran Bassil for assisting
his key ally, the pro-Iranian
political movement Hezbollah,
said a U.S. official and another

More Western Nations Adopt person briefed on the plan.

The move is likely to upend at-
tempts to form a new cabinet

State Support of Businesses in crisis-ridden Lebanon.

The White House has been
expediting key sanctions tar-
geting American foes in the
BY TOM FAIRLESS while competing with giant last month vowed to erect bar- Middle East, just 11 weeks be-
AND STELLA YIFAN XIE state-backed companies in riers to foreign competitors, fore the end of the current
China and elsewhere in Asia. repatriate production of key presidential term.
FRANKFURT—Western gov- The trend is being acceler- technologies, reduce depen- Though a last-minute
ernments are taking a page ated by the Covid-19 pandemic, dencies in sensitive industries change is still possible, the de-
from their Asian rivals and which has prompted a rethink such as health, and create new cision has been approved in
moving away from the free- of the balance between the digital champions. principle by the Treasury De-
market doctrine that defined state and private sector, as Italian state-backed lender partment and Secretary of
their economic thinking for well as fresh ideas about how Cassa Depositi e Prestiti last State Mike Pompeo, who is ex-
decades, instead embracing giant stimulus programs in Eu- month took a stake in Euro- pected to unveil the sanctions
greater state control of busi- rope and the U.S. could be de- pean exchange operator Eu- in Washington on Friday, one
ness activity. ployed This
to reshape
copy economies. ronext NVnon-commercial
is for personal, to support its buy- use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. person said.
ARCROFT MEDIA/GETTY IMAGES

The shift reflects a deep In the European Union, an out of the Italian stock Treasury Department repre-
anxiety about the West’s abil- export powerhouse that had exchange. For commercial reproduction or distribution:
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rier Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Poweredtobycomment.
declined TECNAVIA
which was privatized in 1997, Mr. Bassil couldn’t be
and two supervisory board reached Thursday for com-