 Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah on Saturday blasted a forthcoming US-hosted summit, which aims to revive long-stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations.
| Neither has the words "striving for peace" on their logo, do they? |
At a conference in Tehran, representatives of the two groups lashed out at the US move and predicted it would fail. "This conference wants to destroy the Palestinian issue. This conference will fail," said Mussa Abu Marzuq, top aide to Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal. "This conference is a fantasy and propaganda and it aims to attract the so-called moderate Arab nations to their side and part them from the Palestinian issue," he added.
| The conference takes the Arab world at its word, to whit, that the Paleostinian issue is the paramount issue in that part of the world, perhaps in the entire world. Conferences are held to discuss thing, to reach agreements, possibly even solutions. One way to solve problems is to break them down into smaller, more manageable pieces and solve each separately. In an ideal situation, Israel, the Paleos, and the participating Arab and Muslim governments would all reach agreement on all the pieces under discussion, with both sides giving here or there. When the conference was over, the pieces that were solved wouldn't be problems anymore, and the participants could turn their attention to the remaining pieces, to whit, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, each noted for their propensity for making faces and calling names. |
The conference will be held on Tuesday in Annapolis, Maryland. Hezbollah's foreign relations chief, Sheikh Ali Daghmush
| There are too damned many Dogmushes involved in all this for my taste. I'd as soon see al-Ghamdis. |
... said: "Israel (in this conference) aims to normalise ties with the Arab nations, so prevention of this Zionist plot should be carried out."
| I was just talking about that sort of thing, wasn't I? The whole idea is to remove areas of contention and allow normalized relations. |
Hamas insists that Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has no mandate to negotiate on behalf of all the Palestinians.
| So he's negotiating on behalf of his own Paleostinians. |
Iran, which does not recognise Israel, owns is one of the most vocal backers of Hamas and Hezbollah, and pledged millions of dollars in 2006 to the then Hamas government crippled by a Western aid cut. US officials have pointed a finger at Iran, which they say helped Hamas fighters to seize control of the Gaza Strip in June, and of sponsoring Hezbollah. Tehran denies supplying arms to either group, saying its support is a "moral" one.
| Right. We believe Hezbollah builds its rockets and missiles in its members' basements and garages. |
| Rocketing Sderot *is* a moral issue, deserving of support. Ask anyone. |
Hamas, which has slated a "counter-conference" in Gaza on Monday, said earlier in the day it will step up attacks against Israeli troops there and in the West Bank after the Annapolis meeting. "The period that will follow the Annapolis conference will witness an increase of the resistance against the Zionist occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip," Marzuq said on the group's website. "The Annapolis conference has two objectives: to help shore up (Israeli Prime Minister) Ehud Olmert after his defeat in the south of Lebanon and secondly to cover up for American plans of a war against Iran," he said. |