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Politics : WAR on Terror. Will it engulf the Entire Middle East? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Scoobah who wrote (4419)	5/17/2002 12:47:26 PM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Respond to of 32591

Sheikh Ahmed Yassin: Hamas to continue attacks against Israel By Reuters The founder of the Islamic militant group Hamas vowed on Friday his movement would pursue suicide attacks against Israel as long as the IDF continued raids in Palestinian areas. "All our attacks will go on. You cannot talk about ceasing attacks while your enemy is pursuing its incursions and its killings of civilians everywhere," Sheikh Ahmed Yassin told Reuters in an interview. Several dozen Palestinian onlookers crowded around the wheelchair-bound Yassin as he gave the interview outside a Gaza mosque where he had earlier attended Friday Muslim prayers. The ailing Muslim cleric denied media reports his group had promised to cease suicide attacks against Israel amid a relative lull in Middle East violence after the IDF pulled back from a sweeping West Bank offensive launched last month. According to the reports, officials from Hamas and Saudi Arabia discussed an end to suicide bombings which have killed scores of Israelis in a 19-month-old Palestinian uprising against occupation. "There are no talks between Hamas and Saudi Arabia over suicide attacks," Yassin said. "We appreciate the status of Saudi Arabia but they have not contacted us." The Muslim kingdom has been a key supporter of the Palestinians during their 54-year-old conflict with Israel and a major donor to Islamic charities in Palestinian territories. Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat condemned as a "terrorist" attack the most recent suicide bombing on May 7 which killed 15 Israelis in a billiards club south of Tel Aviv and called for a halt to attacks on Israeli civilians. No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing. Some Arab leaders echoed Arafat's call, saying suicide attacks would harm the Palestinians fight for independence internationally and would give Prime Minister Ariel Sharon an excuse to pursue further military strikes. The army's month-long West Bank campaign followed a wave of suicide bombings against Israelis. "I am surprised by this talk. I call on those people to ask Israel to end its occupation and not to ask Palestinians to stop defending themselves," Yassin said of the appeals. "Martyrdom attacks come only as a response to Israeli crimes. No crimes, no attacks," he said. Hamas and PA reforms Arafat has also called for wide-ranging reform of his Palestinian Authority and raised the possibility of new elections under widespread pressure, both domestic and from Israel and the United States, to root out corruption. Yassin, whose movement seeks the destruction of Israel, said Arafat's call for elections was "bad timing" as long as Israel continued to occupy Palestinian lands. "It comes upon demands by Israel and the United States. The aim is to direct the attention of Palestinians from resisting the occupation and from avenging Israeli massacres," he said. Yassin said his group supports Arafat's call for reforms but urged that they serve Palestinian resistance and not Sharon's insistence that such changes sideline the PA Chairman. "Is Sharon interested in correcting our wrongdoings? He only wants certain people to emerge (as leaders) from these measures who will implement his policies," Yassin said.