Palestinian PM condemns Rice's remarks about creating new Mideast
23/7/2006 10:46
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haneya of the Islamic Resistance
Movement (Hamas) condemned on Saturday US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's
remarks about creating a new Middle East.
"Rice's remarks are aiming at
striking against the armed resistance in both Lebanon and the Palestinian
territories and then reinforcing the Israeli domination over the region," said
Haneya.
Earlier, Rice told a news conference in Washington, "What we're
seeing in Gaza ... are the birth pangs of a new Middle East and whatever we do,
we have to be certain that we are pushing forward to the new Middle East, not
going back to the old one."
Calling on the US administration to "respect the
democratic choice of the Palestinian people" to elect Hamas into power, Haneya
also urged for an immediate "halt of the Israeli military aggressions" against
both the Palestinian and the Lebanese people.
"If the 'new Middle East' is
based on ending the resistance and preparing the region for Israel, this will
certainly be rejected by all nations in the region," Haneya told reporters in
Gaza.
But he also said that a 'new Middle East' would be welcomed "if it is
intended to end the Israeli occupation and establish an independent Palestinian
state with full sovereignty and with Jerusalem as its capital."
Haneya also
said that the Palestinian people and the Hamas-led Palestinian government
welcomed "the release of Palestinian prisoners, the return of refugees and the
halt of Israel's extensive aggressions."
Haneya also strongly criticized the
US administration for being "biased" in its policies regarding the Middle
East.
"The US has to reconsider its stance and has to respect the rules of
the democratic game it has called and asked the people of the region to abide
by," Haneya said.
The 43-year-old Palestinian premier also said that
countries in the area would never surrender and that the Palestinian people
would never surrender under outside pressure.
Rice is planned to start a
visit to the Middle East region on Sunday in a bid to calm the situation in
Lebanon where Israel has pressed ahead a massive offensive following the capture
of two Israeli soldiers by Lebanon's Hezbollah guerillas.
On another front,
Israel continued a weeks-long air and ground operation in the Gaza Strip in a
bid to rescue another Israeli soldier kidnapped by Palestinian gunmen and halt
Palestinian rocket attacks.
The US has labelled Hamas as a terrorist group,
leading a boycott against the Hamas-led Palestinian government.
Xinhua
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