U.S. calls Hamas 'enemy of peace' after talks with Abbas halted
By Aluf Benn and Arnon Regular Haaretz Correspondents (Aqaba), Haaretz Service and Agencies
The U.S. denounced the militant Islamic group Hamas
as an "enemy of peace" on Friday, after the
organization broke off talks on ending
anti-Israeli violence.
White House spokesman Scott
McClellan said, however, that
President George W. Bush's
peace efforts would go on. He
urged all parties in the region
to dismantle the
"infrastructure of terror."
"Hamas is an enemy of peace and
we will continue working with
all parties to try to achieve peace," McClellan
said.
"All parties agree that terrorism must end and
that all parties have responsibilities to fight
terror, and do everything they can to dismantle
the infrastructure of terror," said McClellan.
The militant Islamic group Hamas said on Friday it
was breaking off talks with Palestinian Prime
Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) on ending its
attacks on Israelis.
"The dialogue has ended," Abdel-Aziz al-Rantisi, a
Hamas leader told Reuters, saying Abbas made
unacceptable commitments at a U.S.-led summit
with Israel in Jordan on Wednesday. Abbas called
at the summit for an end to the Palestinian armed
struggle for statehood.
But a Palestinian minister said that contacts with
senior Hamas officials were continuing abroad.
At the same time, Palestinian security officials
were pursuing other means to disarm gunmen,
finalizing a plan to buy illegal weapons,
according to several Palestinian officials and
militia members, who spoke on condition of
anonymity.
Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed
Yassin said Hamas was ending dialogue since Abbas
ignored at the summit key issues like the right
of return of Palestinian refugees to what is now
Israel and the future of Jerusalem.
"This is our choice and we have no alternative.
(Armed) resistance will continue," Yassin said.
"The Israeli enemy continues its raids and they
assassinated two people in Tul Karm," Yassin
said, referring to the killing on Thursday of two
Hamas men wanted by Israel.
Abbas called at the landmark gathering Wednesday
for an end to the Palestinian armed struggle for
statehood. Hamas has spearheaded attacks on
Israelis, including dozens of suicide attacks
during the 32-month-old uprising.
Abbas held several rounds of truce talks with
Hamas before this week's summit and expressed
confidence he could achieve a truce soon in
further meetings with the group, which rejects
peacemaking with Israel.
"Abu Mazen has stopped the dialogue when he
committed himself to some issues not accepted by
Hamas and will never be accepted by the
Palestinian people," Rantisi said.
Activists from the Al Aqsa Brigades, the armed
wing of PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah party,
released a statement conditioning the agreement
to a temporary cease-fire (hudna) on Israel
lifting the siege on Arafat, a halt to
assassinations and the release of Palestinian
prisoners, Israel Radio reported Friday.
According to the radio, the activists also
demanded that Israel stop pursuing senior wanted
Palestinians, including former PA intelligence
chief Tawfiq Tirawi. The activists also criticized
Mohammed Dahlan, the new PA security chief.
Arafat has been under siege in his Ramallah
headquarters and has not left his compound in the
West Bank city since March 2002.
PLO calls on factions to continue dialogue
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) called
on the Palestinian political factions on Friday
to continue with the dialogue they have started
for national unity.
The PLO Executive Committee held a meeting at
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's
headquarters in Ramallah to listen to a report
from Abbas on his talks at the Sharm el-Sheikh
and Aqaba summits.
A statement issued at the conclusion of the
meeting said the Executive Committee stressed the
importance of national unity and the need to
continue dialogue between all the parties.
The PLO statement also strongly criticized Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's position at the Aqaba
summit held Wednesday in Jordan in the presence
of U.S. President George Bush. It said Sharon
repeated the Israeli reservations to the road
map.
"Sharon once again repeated the Israeli
reservations to the road map," said the
statement, and "he did not openly commit himself
to end all violence and military escalation
against the Palestinian people."
The PLO expressed appreciation for the position of
Bush, who stressed the need to implement the road
map without any changes and has decided to
dispatch monitors and observers to oversee its
implementation.
At the meeting, Palestinian Information Minister
Yasser Abed Rabbo said that Israel is ignoring
its obligation to the road map to Middle East
peace, Israel Radio reported on Friday night.
According to Abed Rabbo, facts on the ground
prove that Israel's military operations continue
to take place.
Abed Rabbo called on the U.S. to make all possible
efforts to force Israel to implement the road
map.
Sources: Dahlan offering to buy illegal weapons
According to several Palestinian officials and
militia members, Palestinian security chief
Mohammed Dahlan was offering to buy illegal
weapons carried by members of the Al Aqsa
Martyrs' Brigades, a militia linked to Abbas'
Fatah movement. The buyback was to start in the
coming days, they said.
Dahlan has received money from the United States,
Britain and other European countries to buy the
weapons, the officials said.
A British Foreign Office official, speaking on
condition of anonymity, denied any British
involvement in the plan, but said the government
was prepared to help in any initiative that could
improve the prospects for peace.
U.S. officials did not respond to requests for
comment.
An Al Aqsa leader said Dahlan is offering $6,000 -
more than twice the black market value - for each
rifle, while officials gave lower figures. Dahlan
also offered a signup bonus of at least $6,000 to
Al Aqsa members who leave the militia and join
the security forces, militiamen said.
Those amounts are enormous in the West Bank and
Gaza, where a teacher makes about $330 a month,
and unemployment is over 50 percent.
Bush considers easing aid restrictions on
Palestinians
The Bush administration said Thursday it is
considering easing restrictions on direct U.S.
aid to the Palestinian Authority, a move that
could help boost confidence -- and funding -- for
the new government.
But a senior administration official said any
change in policy would take time. "We want to
take a look, want to talk to the Congress about
what the new conditions now mean for when it
might be appropriate to do direct support to the
leadership of the Palestinian Authority," a
senior administration official told reporters
aboard Air Force One, one day after President
George W. Bush's summit in Jordan with Israeli
and Palestinian leaders.
Palestinian leaders have asked the White House to
reverse a long-standing policy that blocks U.S.
aid from going directly to the authority. The
issue was raised during Palestinian Finance
Minister Salam Fayyad's recent visit to the White
House.
The United States currently provides about $75
million a year in aid to the Palestinians. But
that money goes to nongovernmental organizations
and contractors for essential projects such as
water, bypassing the Palestinian Authority, which
U.S. and Israeli critics had accused of
corruption and supporting terrorism.
"It's not something that has to be done tomorrow.
They (the Palestinians) are getting help on the
most immediate needs. They're getting some help
from their neighbors. They're getting some help
from others," the administration official said.
"But over this next period of time, as the
Palestinian Authority's leadership emerges as
accountable and responsible to its own people and
transparent, it's going to be important that they
have the means to help their own people
directly." The official said the administration
would "take a look" at whether to increase
funding to the authority.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is
scheduled to arrive in the Middle East next week
at Bush's request Bush. Berlusconi will meet with
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, but may face
diplomatic obstacles in meeting Palestinian
leaders, Israel Radio reported Friday.
PA ministry getting U.S., E.U. police equipment
The Palestinian Authority ministry of interior is
preparing to receive European and U.S. police
equipment to rebuild a strong Palestinian police
force, interior sources said Thursday.
The sources said that the aim of receiving such
police equipment is to rehabilitate the different
Palestinian security apparatuses for
implementation of the security requirements in
the so-called roadmap peace plan.
The equipment is to include jeeps and special
vehicles to disperse riots, shields, light
pistols and helmets, adding that the equipment is
waiting at Israeli passages to be allowed into
the Palestinian territories.
An intensive movement of police forces was seen in
the streets of several Gaza Strip areas still
under the control of Palestinian Authority
security forces, where joint patrols of different
security agencies were seen moving around in
Gaza.
Palestinian security sources said that several
security apparatuses recently began intensive
training course to suppress violence, adding that
training courses were given to qualified and
professional police officers.
Well-informed security sources said that there are
preparations to build up a new Central Security
Force, adding that officers in the force are
being prepared to handle riots or civil
disturbances.
The sources said that the force would have special
uniforms and special weapons and equipment from
both Europe and the United States.
Bush plans to "ride herd" in Mideast
U.S. President George W. Bush warned after an
Israeli-Palestinian summit on Wednesday that
there were "killers lurking in the neighborhood"
trying to throw the U.S.-backed peace "road map"
off course. He also said his aim was to keep the
process moving, like a cowboy on horseback
herding cattle.
Relaxed and sipping a Diet Coke, Bush talked
expansively in the conference room of his plane
about his meetings with Palestinian Prime
Minister Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon in Aqaba, Jordan, and talks a day earlier
with Arab leaders in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
"We have made a good beginning, and I emphasize
beginning because there is a lot of work to do,"
Bush told reporters as he flew to Doha, Qatar, on
the final leg of a week-long visit to Europe and
the Middle East.
He recalled that his predecessor Bill Clinton was
close to a Middle East deal in 2000 only to see
it fall apart.
"I am cautious," he said. "And I am cautious
because history tells you to be cautious. I don't
know where you were in 2000... but they were
close."
"There are killers lurking in the neighborhood,"
he added. "There are people who have openly
declared their hostility to Israel, and their
desire to destroy Israeli citizens. There are
people who would rather have chaos than a
state."
Long seen as reluctant to get deeply involved in
the Middle East conflict, Bush said he saw his
role as driving both sides along and holding them
accountable.
Waving his arms, the president earlier told
reporters his aim was to keep the process moving,
like a cowboy on horseback herding cattle. "I
used the expression 'ride herd.' I don't know if
anybody understood it in the meeting today," he
said.
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