http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/871079.html
A Hamas militant armed with a missile launcher in Gaza City on Wednesday.
Last update - 12:50 14/06/2007
Hamas rejects multinational force along Gaza-Egypt border
By Yoav Stern and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondents, and news
agencies
Hamas said Thursday that it would refuse to accept a multinational
force along the Gaza-Egypt border and would treat it as an occupying power.
"Hamas rejects any dispatch of foreign forces to the Gaza Strip,"
Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said. "The movement would regard those forces as
occupation forces no different to the Israeli occupation, regardless of their
nationality."
A multinational force in Gaza was suggested by Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas during separate phone
conversations Tuesday with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who in turn
discussed it with the Security Council on Wednesday.
A top official of the world's main Muslim body also rejected the
idea of deploying a multinational force in Gaza to stop the fighting between
Fatah and Hamas groups, insisting Thursday that the Palestinians need strong
leadership.
"These are the same people," Ihsanoglu said, referring to the Hamas
and Fatah fighters who have been locked a fierce power struggle since Hamas won
parliamentary elections last year. Their battles have escalated in recent days
as Hamas began a systematic assault on security forces to take over Gaza.
"What is needed is not external forces. What is needed is a better
understanding between internal forces, said Ihsanoglu who is in Kuala Lumpur to
attend a health ministers' conference of the 57-member OIC of which the
Palestinian territory is also a member," he said.
Ihsanoglu said he has been in contact with Abbas and other
Palestinian leaders, and has told them to show more strength of leadership.
"The situation cannot be allowed to further deteriorate. There is a
need for strong leadership on behalf of all political leaders ?the leadership
should immediately show its strength and its resolution," said Ihsanoglu, and
expressed concern that the fighting could spread to the West Bank, which is
under Fatah control.
The deployment of a multinational force along the Philadelphi Route
in Rafah, on the Gaza-Egypt border, should be seriously considered, Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday.
The presence of an international force could help curb the
smuggling of weapons into the Gaza Strip from Egypt, and halt the ongoing
strengthening of the militant groups in the Gaza Strip.
Olmert raised the likelihood of such a deployment following the
continued internecine violence in the Gaza Strip that claimed the lives of at
least 25 Palestinians Tuesday.
Speaking after a meeting with visiting Dutch Foreign Minister
Maxime Verhagen, Olmert said that "Western countries need to act soon to alter
the situation in the Gaza Strip."
Olmert suggested that the multinational force would be similar to
the United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.
Olmert is likely to raise the idea of a multinational force during
his talks with President George Bush in Washington next Tuesday.
The idea of a such a force along the Philadelphi Route was proposed
by the Foreign Ministry, and was presented during a meeting of the security
cabinet three weeks ago, which centered on the situation in the Strip.
According to the plan the force would serve to prevent the
smuggling of arms from Sinai to the Gaza Strip in coordination with an Egyptian
force operating on the Egyptian side of the border.
The multinational force is not envisioned to have a role in
preventing the clashes between Fatah and Hamas, or ending the Qassam rocket
attacks.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni described the arms smuggling as the
main "cause of terrorism" in the Gaza Strip, and proposed that the U.S. fund
the building of a barrier that will prevent smuggling
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
