VARIOUS: International leaders urge Hamas to disarm after Palestinian election victory

Record ID: 492318

  • Title: VARIOUS: International leaders urge Hamas to disarm after Palestinian election victory
  • Date: 27th January 2006
  • Summary: MODERATOR TOM FRIEDMAN OF THE NEW YORK TIMES LISTENING
  • Embargoed: 11th February 2006 12:00
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  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAB02J2Y4Q2PXO9V2SWMPSVWBWY
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  • Story Text: The Islamic militant Hamas group swept to victory over the long-dominant Fatah party on Thursday (January 26) in Palestinian parliamentary polls -- a political earthquake that could bury any hope for an early revival of peace talks with Israel. International leaders immediately urged Hamas to disarm and not to derail the peace process. Some said Hamas must renounce violence or risk international isolation. U.S. President George W Bush reiterated Washington's view that it would not deal with a party advocating the destruction of Israel. "I don't see how you can be a partner in peace if you advocate the destruction of a country as part of your platform. And I know you know you can't be a partner in peace if you have -- if your party has got an armed wing," Bush told a White House news conference. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Hamas had won a powerful mandate but must now decide "between a path of democracy or a path of violence". "The only way we will ever get to a solution good for the Palestinian people is based on democracy, and peaceful cooexistence between the state of Israel and an independent Palestinian state," he said. Hamas, which is officially committed to the destruction of Israel and has carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings in the Jewish state over the last six years, is outlawed as a terrorist organisation by the 25-nation European Union. It defeated the long-dominant Fatah faction in Wednesday's parliamentary vote, held out the chance of a coalition with Fatah and other parties -- and reaffirmed its commitment to what it calls armed resistance to Israeli occupation. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. position on Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organisation, was unchanged. "As we have said, you cannot have one foot in politics and the other in terror. Our position on Hamas has therefore not changed," she told the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, speaking by videolink to Davos from Washington. Rice said there could be no Middle East peace process if Hamas refused to recognise Israel's right to exist. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he looked forward to working with the newly-elected Palestinian government, but reiterated the position of the so-called Quartet -- the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- that a Palestinian Cabinet should not include those who support violence or terrorism. "When we (the Quartet) met in New York in September, at the press conference I indicated that any group that wishes to participate in the democratic process should ultimately disarm because to carry weapons and participate in democratic process and sit in parliament there is a fundamental contradiction and I'm sure they are thinking about that too," Annan said in Davos, Switzerland, where he has been attending the World Economic Forum. The Secretary-General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, was also in Davos and he praised the democratic process. Asked about the U.S. position that it will not work with a Palestinian Authority that has Hamas in government, Moussa said: "You cannot be calling for democracy and then punishing those who are elected." Muslim leaders urged Israel and the world to accept the Hamas victory, saying it may present a different face in government than on the streets. Speaking at the World Economic Forum, the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan joined the head of the Arab League in arguing that Hamas should be given a chance to change. "If the people of Palestine have expressed their will by voting for Hamas, we should respect it and give Hamas a chance to prove itself while in government," Afghan President Hamid Karzai told the World Economic Forum in Davos. Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said taking responsibility for the development and security of the Palestinians would challenge Hamas -- considered a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and the European Union -- to change. "I would say optimistically when a person or a group is outside government it's very easy to agitate and bring about all sorts of utopian ideas of what and how we should behave. But when the responsibility of governance comes on your head and shoulders, one really then deliberates and thinks and then takes action. So I hope that this is the case with Hamas," he said. Hajim Alhasani, speaker of the Iraqi parliament, said democracy will be served. "In the end it will serve democracy. Isolation is bad, it gives strength to extremism. Bringing them into the political process either pushes them to be modernised or moderates or they will be out political game," he said. Queen Rania of Jordan said the election outcome was as much a vote against the plight of the Palestinians -- lack of security, corruption, humiliation, roadblocks and lack of access to basic services -- as it was a vote for Hamas. "It remains to be seen how Hamas will step up to the plate now that they're in a position of responsibility," she said. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a close ally of Israel, said a Hamas victory would be "very, very negative". "If the news is true, everything that we have hoped for regarding peace between Israel and Palestine would be put back to who knows when. We had also offered the town of Erice (in Sicily) to host negotiations to finally have the possibility of two independent and friendly states, at peace with each other. All this will be put back, seeing that among the Palestinian population there is this majority that supports an extremist formation," he said. With peace negotiations stalled since 2000 and Israel and Hamas bitter enemies, Israeli interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert could opt for more unilateral moves, following last year's Gaza pullout, to shape borders on land Palestinians want for a state. Commentators in the Arab world predicted pragmatism would eventually prevail, with Hamas softening a position that now calls for the Jewish state's destruction and Israel forging contacts with a new Palestinian powerhouse on its doorstep. Voting in Wednesday's election was orderly despite weeks of armed chaos. More than 400 candidates ran locally in the first parliamentary elections since 1996. About 900 foreign observers, led by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, were present. Three exit polls had forecast a slim Fatah victory in the election. Turnout was 78 percent of the 1.3 million voters.
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