American warning against Hamas participation in Palestinian legislative elections
Palestine-Israel-USA, Politics, 1/17/2006

The US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice has warned that getting Hamas involved in any new government might affect the efforts supported by Washington to establish an independent Palestinian state.

But Rice did not proceed towards threatening to halt the American aid for the Palestinians if they form a government in which several Hamas ministers participate following the elections.

She told journalists that Washington is waiting for what will happen after the elections, noting that the ability of the Palestinians to make Israel proceed in the Roadmap relies on the existence of persons in the government who believe in the principles of the Roadmap.

Rice said "the Palestinian leadership and government will have to be responsive -- in order to access the roadmap and the Quartet, Wolfensohn, all of those elements, the Palestinian government will have to be responsive to certain basic elements in order to make it work. So we'll see, but I think that Abbas himself has been very clear that he understands that violence is not an acceptable course for the Palestinian people. He understands there has to be a two-state solution, and that if there's to be a two-state solution you have to recognize the right of Israel to exist."

Rice said "The fact is that after these elections, the ability of the Palestinians to engage the Israelis to move forward on the roadmap is obviously going to be dependent on having people in the governing structures who believe in the roadmap. And in order to negotiate with a party, you have to believe in its right to exist. In order to have freedom of movement and access and peaceful development of the kind that the Quartet is pressing or that Jim Wolfensohn is pressing, you have to believe that violence is not acceptable. And so we've said all along that this is a transitional process; we understand that. The Palestinians are going through their first free and fair nationwide elections for the Palestinian parliament. That's very good. But they will have a certain obligation to the international community, and anybody who governs is going to have to carry out those obligations. It's going to be a two-way street."

Previous Stories:
  Qurei: elections in Jerusalem affirm city as Palestinian   (1/16/2006)
  Palestinian official does not rule out delay of elections   (1/14/2006)
  Rice says January Palestinian elections a positive move   (1/12/2006)
  Rice says January Palestinian elections a positive move   (1/12/2006)
  US view on Israeli intervention in Palestinian elections   (1/11/2006)
  Israeli PM: Palestinians in Jerusalem can vote, but not for Hamas   (1/10/2006)

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