Hamas PM slams Rice's 'new Middle East' concept
By AFX News
07/25/06 -- -- GAZA CITY (AFX) - Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail
Haniya said the US view of a new Middle East was one that began with
"destroying Lebanon" and with killing the maximum number of
Palestinians.
"In the name of the government, we condemn the American positions
... giving the green light to the occupation to continue its
aggressions," Haniya told the Hamas-led cabinet, according to an
official statement released to journalists.
"We ask the American administration to stop its blind support for
the occupation ... and not allow the continued killing of children,
women and old people by American weapons on Palestinian and Lebanese
lands.
"It seems that from the American point of view, the new Middle East
starts by destroying Lebanon, by killing the maximum number of our
Palestinian people and by bringing down the resistance," he said.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said earlier in Jerusalem
that it was "time for a new Middle East" as she began talks with
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on the Lebanon conflict, before
meeting Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank.
Israel has killed more than 380 people, mostly civilians, in Lebanon
in its two-week-old offensive that it said was to destroy Hezbollah,
recover two soldiers captured by the Shiite movement, and halt
rocket attacks on northern Israel.
Meanwhile, 42 people have been killed in Israel in the past two
weeks by Hezbollah rockets fired across the border.
Haniya slammed what he called a "dangerous escalation in Israeli
aggression", with F-16 warplanes targeting homes while people were
inside.
"This is a very dangerous escalation and we call on the American
administration to stop this dangerous escalation against the
civilians."
Israel last Thursday warned civilians in Gaza that homes storing
weapons were a direct target in its offensive in the Palestinian
territory that has killed at least 114 Palestinians and one Israeli
soldier this month.
Copyright AFX News Limited
