Hamas rejects Quartet`s calls to disarm and recognize Israel
31/01/2006
By News Agencies
Hamas on Monday rejected a call by the Quartet of would-be peace-making nations and the United Nations to renounce violence and recognize Israel if it participates in a Palestinian government.
Sami Abu Zuhri said "the Quartet should have demanded an end to (Israeli) occupation and aggression ... not demanded that the victim should recognize the occupation and stand handcuffed in the face of the aggression.".
A short time earlier, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that a Hamas-led Palestinian government must commit to non-violence, recognition of Israel and acceptance of existing peace agreements if it is to maintain its level of financial support.
Speaking for the Quartet after their meeting in London, Annan also said Hamas must set up a government that is committed to the rule of law, to tolerance, reform and sound fiscal management.
It was "inevitable that future assistance to any new government would be reviewed by donors against that government`s commitment" to such principles, Annan said.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, addressing the London news conference at the Quartet meeting, said the new government has "an obligation ... to speak to the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a better life and for a peaceful life.
"That peaceful life, the Quartet has reiterated, can be achieved only through a two-state solution that recognizes the right of Israel to exist; that is committed to non-violence; that undertakes the obligations of the road map," she told reporters.
The Quartet, which includes the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, was already on record as saying "there is a fundamental contradiction between armed group and militia activities and the building of a democratic state."
Earlier on Monday U.S. President George W. Bush said that he would not support a Palestinian government made up of Hamas.
"The Hamas party has made it clear that they do not support the right of Israel" to exist, Bush said after meeting with his Cabinet: "And I have made it clear that so long as that`s their policy that we will not support a Palestinian government made up of Hamas."
The Palestinian Authority receives about US$1 billion from overseas donors more than half of which is from European nations. The rest is a mix of funds from international donor agencies, Arab and Asian governments, and the U.S., which gave US$70 million in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority last year. Rice earlier ruled out any U.S. financial assistance to a Hamas government.
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