OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 21 June 2003 — US Secretary of State Collin Powell yesterday identified the Palestinian group Hamas as the “enemy of peace.”
On a trip to the region to salvage the Middle East peace road map, Powell called on the Palestinian Authority to strip the group of its “terror network.” He said that negotiating a truce — as Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas has been doing — was not enough.
He said it was important for Palestinian officials to take charge of security in certain occupied lands regardless of whether militants sign on to a cease-fire deal.
At a news conference with Abbas, Powell said such a move in the northern Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Bethlehem would be “a very, very powerful and important first step” forward.
“We should not in any way hold that activity hostage to what might or what might not be happening in the cease-fire, as they are called, discussions” among the Palestinian factions, Powell said.
“Even if those discussions prove fruitless, we really have to get to a point... where the only ones with guns and military force in any nation has to be the government under legal control.”
As Powell spoke, an Israeli driver was killed and three passengers were wounded in a Hamas shooting attack in the West Bank.
Abdel Aziz Rantissi, a Hamas leader, responded angrily to Powell’s comments, calling him a “big liar.” “This is a statement that reflects and proves that he is a little slave to the Zionists,” he said.
