Bush calls on Hamas to recognize Israel, drop the gun

The US president George W. Bush renewed his call for the Islamic resistance movement Hamas, which won great victory in the Palestinian elections last week, to recognize Israel and drop resistance movement.

Bush said in his speech yesterday "The Palestinian people have voted in elections. And now the leaders of Hamas must recognize Israel, disarm, reject terrorism, and work for lasting peace."

Chairman of the political bureau of the Hamas movement Khaled Mashaal rejected similar conditions set by the Quartet and the European Union in order for continued financial support for the Palestinian authority in return for renouncing violence and admitting the right of Israel to exist.

Mashaal said in a press conference he held in Damascus on the sideline of Hamas's leadership meeting of a Jordanian Islamic delegation which came to Damascus to congratulate the movement "we do not accept these conditions. We are authorized by the majority of the Palestinian people in negotiations sponsored by international sides. They have to deal with the new elected leadership as it is. We are ready for negotiations, but we will carry the rights of our people with us."

Mashaal said that the "American policy is extremely mistaken, we call it to review its calculation and the position taken by the Russian President ( Vladimir Putin) is an evidence on that. It is in the interest of the USA to review its position because it will find itself after a while, isolated."

He stressed that "neither the US nor the Quartet are able to keep financial support from the Palestinian people."