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Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal (AP)
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| By Associated Press February 15, 2006 |
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The United States denied on Tuesday it was discussing with Israel ways to destabilize Hamas in an attempt to provoke new elections as the militant Islamic group prepares to take over the Palestinian Authority.
"There is no plan, there is no plot," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
The New York Times reported on its front page Tuesday that the United States and Israel were considering a campaign to bring down a Hamas government by starving the Palestinian Authority of cash. Israel transfers about $50 million to the authority every month as revenue from income and customs taxes collected on its behalf.
McCormack said the State Department was puzzled by the newspaper's Jerusalem-dated report.
"We are not having conversations with the Israelis that we are not having with others, including the Quartet," he said referring to the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, who are supporting a Mideast peace plan known as the road map.
McCormack also reiterated what the United States and other members of the Quartet are demanding: that Hamas recognize Israel right to exist, renounce terror, and accept past agreements the Palestinians reached with the Israelis.
Hamas has repeatedly refused to change its policy on Israel since its triumph in the Jan. 25 elections. It has invited its defeated rival, the Fatah party, to join a coalition government, but Fatah leaders have so far declined to do so, apparently fearing that Hamas would use their ministers to conduct business with Israel.
Daniel Ayalon, the Israeli ambassador, told The Associated Press:"There are no ongoing discussions with the U.S. designed to bring down the Palestinian government."
Ayalon also said, "There is no conspiracy between Israel and the United States to hurt the Palestinian people and there is no plan whatsoever to compromise the well-being of the Palestinian people.
"Israel hopes the Palestinian leadership will take the right steps and adopt the requirements put to them by the international community, mainly the Quartet, to recognize Israel's right to exist, renounce terorism and dismantle terror organizations and to accept previous agreement and the vision of a two-state solution, two states side by side."
Hamas leader stresses that his terror group won't recognize Israel
Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal reiterated Tuesday that his group had no plans to recognize Israel and called on the Jewish state to instead accept the militant movement and withdraw from occupied territories.
"There will be no recognition of Israel and there will be no security for the occupation and colonization forces," Mashaal told a rally in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on Tuesday. "Resistance will remain our strategic option."
"By God, Israel will not feel safe and will have no legitimacy," Mashaal said to shouts of "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great," against a backdrop of a huge portrait of slain Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin.
Mashaal, who is on a regional tour to drum up support for Hamas, said the world should instead press Israel to recognize the militant group. "How can the prisoner be asked to recognize his jailer?" he asked.
"If you want to shorten the road and stop bloodletting, the world should commit Israel to withdraw from our territories and stop occupation and aggression and allow the Palestinian people to establish their independent state with Jerusalem its capital," he told the crowd.
Hamas, whose suicide bombers have killed hundreds of Israelis, won a landslide victory in the Palestinian elections last month and is set to take over the Palestinian Authority within weeks.
Mashaal said the group still hopes to form a national coalition government with other Palestinian factions, including Fatah.
"We are keen to achieve national unity and we well form a strong coalition national government. If there are any differences we will work to overcome them," he said.
While in Khartoum, Mashaal held talks with Sudanese leaders about an Arab summit scheduled to be held in Sudan next month. The leaders are expected to forge an Arab strategy on how to deal with Hamas when it takes power in the Palestinian territories.
Arab League Secretary Amr Moussa said Monday that Hamas should accept an Arab land for peace initiative to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
On Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz quoted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as saying that Hamas will eventually succumb to international pressure, renounce violence and recognize Israel.
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