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Palestinian Hamas supporters demonstrate in Rafah refugee camp, Thursday. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners January 26, 2006 |
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World leaders, uneasy at the prospect of a Hamas-led Palestinian government, immediately exerted pressure on the Islamic militants Thursday to recognize Israel and renounce violence as a precondition for ties.
The top Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal, told Abbas his group is ready for a political partnership, Hamas said.
U.S. President George W. Bush said Thursday that the United States will not deal with Palestinian leaders who dispute Israel's right to exist. "If your platform is the destruction of Israel, it means you're not a partner in peace, and we're interested in peace," Bush said.
In a press conference, Bush responded forcefully to the results of yesterday's Palestinian elections: "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 can't be a partner in peace ... if your party has got an armed wing." The President added, "I made it very clear that the United States does not support political parties that want to destroy our ally, Israel, and that people must renounce that part of their platform."
Israel's acting foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, asked the EU not to deal with a "terror government."
France noted that the European Union lists Hamas as a terrorist organization, as does the United States. Italy said the militant group's resounding -- and surprising -- victory in legislative elections Wednesday could indefinitely postpone any chance of Israeli-Palestinian peace and make the creation of a Palestinian state more difficult.
"It is a very, very, very bad result," Italian news agencies quoted Premier Silvio Berlusconi as saying.
Concern crossed political divides, with traditional supporters of the Palestinian cause - such as Italy's center-left opposition - among those expressing concern.
In the Arab world, some were jubilant. Hamas' win topped the news on state-run radio in Iran - which is accused by Israel and the United States of supplying Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists with weapons and funding.
"This is a victory to all the region's free people," said Ayyoub Muhanna, a 29-year-old who owns a spare parts shop in Lebanon. "The Palestinians gave their vote to the party that gave of its blood."
Sweden's foreign minister, Laila Freivalds, said Hamas' showing was "a protest against those in power who have not done enough, a reaction to the incapacity to lead the political process forward."
The dilemma for Western democracies was compounded by Hamas' seemingly fair-and-square win - American monitors led by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said the elections were "well-administered."
"The whole of the international community has the responsibility to accept the outcome of any fair and democratic election," said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. "But in this case Hamas has a clear responsibility to understand that with democracy goes a rejection of violence."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokesman was blunter: "We can only do business with people who renounce terrorism," he said.
Israel, the United States and the European Union have said they would not deal with a government led by Hamas, which has carried out dozens of suicide bombings, seeks Israel's destruction and has said that it opposes peace talks and will not disarm.
Freivalds, the Swedish minister, said the 25-nation EU will not be able to cooperate with Hamas unless it changes its policies. The French prime minister laid out what he described as "indispensable" conditions: Renouncing violence, accepting progress toward peace, recognizing Israel and recognizing international accords, notably the Oslo peace accords.
EU foreign ministers meeting Monday will discuss the bloc's response. The so-called Quartet - the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the EU - which drafted a road map to prod Israel and the Palestinians into a negotiated peace settlement, will also meet Monday to assess.
"These (election) results may confront us with an entirely new situation which will need to be analyzed," said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
The EU has given millions of euros (dollars) in aid to the Palestinian Authority to help reconstruction efforts in the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria - funding that was called into question following the Hamas win.
"It is obvious that the EU would never countenance funding a regime that continued an armed fight against Israel," said Ignasi Guardans, a Spanish member of the European Parliament. "But we cannot push for democracy and then deny the result of free and fair elections."
The AP contributed to this report.
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