|
US says "no plot" for Hamas ouster
The United States and Israel were not plotting to destabilize a Hamas-led Palestinian government, the White House said on Tuesday, but urged the militant group to respect Israeli-Palestinian accords. The New York Times reported that U.S. and Israeli officials were discussing ways to isolate Hamas, which won an overwhelming victory in the Palestinian election, if it failed to recognize Israel's right to exist and renounce violence. "There's no plot," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "The issue that this goes to is the choice that Hamas has before it. If it wants to realize better relations with the international community, then Hamas must renounce violence, recognize Israel and disarm." McClellan told reporters that Palestinian officials had for years recognized Israel's right to exist and worked in negotiations toward peace. "If Palestinians were to change that decade-old policy, then their relations with the international community will change as well," he said. At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack denied Washington was developing a strategy that differed from its public policy. "The conversations that we are having with the Israeli government are the same conversations we are having with other members of the international community," he said. Israeli officials also denied they were drafting a plan to force new elections. "The strategy is to present the incoming leadership of the Palestinian Authority a clear choice: either they transform themselves into a legitimate political interlocutor ... or they face international isolation," said foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev. Posted by: Pappy 2006-02-15 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=142685 |