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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: March 30, 2006 |
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With Hamas now governing the Palestinians, U.S. diplomats are being cautioned to make sure that any contact they have with the new government is not with a member of the militant resistance organization, the State Department said Wednesday.
Spokesman Sean McCormack said an administrative notice to that effect was sent to U.S. diplomats outlining procedures to ensure they avoid dealing with Hamas members.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a member of the Fatah Party, officially swore in the 24-member Hamas Cabinet on Wednesday. The new prime minister is Hamas activist Ismail Haniyeh.
U.S. law forbids dealing with entities on the State Department's Foreign Terrorist Organizations List. Hamas is on the list, which was last updated a year ago. Despite its designation, Palestinians elected Hamas on Jan. 26 to replace the Fatah government in running the Palestinian Authority.
Considering the ban on Hamas contacts, McCormack said the new rules were to clarify requirements for U.S. officials. "There may be questions in the minds of individuals, `Well, with whom can I have contact?"' he said.
Fatah was the main faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which the United States considered a terrorist organization for two decades and first dealt with it only after its late leader, Yasser Arafat, renounced violence in the late 1980s.
Haniyeh promised to deal with Abbas in "cooperation and harmony" but vowed that they would confront "Israeli aggression against the people."
McCormack noted that Hamas took power after making clear it would not meet conditions set forth by the so-called Quartet interlocutor group - the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia - which has set guidelines for moving toward peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The conditions include recognition of Israel, renunciation of terrorism and acceptance of international commitments of the Palestinian Authority.
McCormack said U.S. officials must abide by laws that say "we will not deal with a member of a terrorist organization; so we will not have contact with members of Hamas, no matter what title they may have."
It was unclear just what the policy might mean for dealing with Haniyeh's government.
McCormack was asked if he was leaving the door open to maintaining contact with civil servants or the like, officials in a Hamas government who are not members of the organization.
"I don't want to give you a steer at this point one way or the other," he said. "At this point, I'm not able to provide you a detailed answer on that."
The United States, the European Union and other countries, including, on Wednesday, Canada, have cut off aid to the Palestinian government until Hamas changes its policy.
McCormack restated that policy Wednesday but said the Bush administration plans to increase humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people and was trying to determine how best to do that.
"On the other hand," he said, "we have said it before, and I'm going to reiterate it, that we are not going to provide funds to a terrorist organization. And we are not going to provide U.S. funds to a Hamas-led government."
McCormack also spoke of another type of problem that has arisen in the new Palestinian equation.
Raji Sourani, president of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, Hamas' traditional stronghold, was invited by a U.S. peace organization - reportedly the Robert Kennedy Center for Human Rights - to undertake speaking engagements in the United States. The tour was canceled because the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem refused to give Sourani a visa.
"We're aware of Mr. Sourani's prominence and his interest in the case," McCormack said. He would not discuss a questioner's suggestion that the visa was rejected because Sourani refused to get a clearance certificate from the Israeli police.
"Consular officers evaluate all information available to them to adjudicate visas under U.S. law," McCormack said. "So this is still a matter - it's an open visa application." |
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