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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Noel de Leon who wrote (101685)	6/16/2003 7:41:54 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 281500

I was vastly encouraged that Bush understood the problem and had his priorities straight after hearing him being questioned after Church Sunday morning. Bush has ominous words for Hamas Key U.S. senator raises possibility of using troops Monday, June 16, 2003 BY RANDALL MIKKELSEN REUTERS KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine -- President Bush yesterday that the world must "deal harshly" with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, and a leading Republican senator said U.S. troops may have to go after them. "The free world and those who love freedom and peace must deal harshly with Hamas and the killers," Bush told reporters when asked whether Israel was justified in recent attacks against the group. "That's just the way it is in the Middle East," he said as he left Sunday services at First Congregational Church in Kennebunkport. The remarks were his most extensive on the situation in the Middle East since a wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence last week threw his peace "road map" into turmoil, and they intensified earlier calls for action against Hamas. Hamas has defied the Palestinian Authority and rejected the road map as too generous to Israel. It claimed responsibility for the most lethal incident in the current outbreak, a suicide bombing in Jerusalem on Wednesday that killed 17. The Bush administration had criticized Israel for trying to assassinate a Hamas leader on Tuesday, but trained its sights on Hamas in the wake of the Jerusalem bombing and complaints from pro-Israel groups in the United States. Bush said the United States was helping the Palestinian Authority reconstitute a security force to take on Hamas, but declined to say if Washington would provide arms or money. Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said, "clearly, if force is required ultimately to root out terrorism, it is possible there would be American participation." Asked if that meant such troops would go after Hamas or other groups, he said, "That may be the conclusion." "... It may not be just Hamas but clearly Hamas is right in the gunsights," he added. Whether to insert forces into the volatile situation is being considered, including "whether they are to be all by themselves" or in conjunction with a United Nations or NATO force, Lugar said on "Fox News Sunday." "The terrorist aspect really has to be dealt with and that's why I say don't underestimate President Bush," Lugar said. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer Friday appeared to rule out a role for U.S. troops in enforcing Palestinian security. "Putting American military, for example, in between, in the region, deploying U.S. troops -- that's something that we have not supported," Fleischer said. France said yesterday it would discuss with European Union colleagues the possibility of sending peacekeeping forces to the Middle East. Bush has sent veteran diplomat John Wolf to the region to prevent the failure of the peace "road map" affirmed at a June 4 summit in Aqaba, Jordan, with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. Bush yesterday also left open the possibility of sending U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to the region. nj.com