THE Hamas movement issued a statement last Monday slamming the US for its ‘pro-Israeli bias’.
It stated: ‘The new Middle East plan is a new US attempt to reorganise the region in favour of the Zionist occupation and the US project is hostile to the Arab and Islamic peoples’ values, rights, and ambitions.
‘Over the years of conflict with the Zionist occupation, the US Administration showed a flagrant bias towards the Zionist entity. This bias becomes more flagrant every day and reflects the scale of the conspiracy against the entire national Arab cause.
‘Our people have been accustomed to the fact that whenever they make important progress in their historical struggle against the Zionist occupation and get closer to achieving some of their ambitions, be they small or big, the US Administration moves to rescue its strategic ally, the illegitimate occupying state.
‘It does so by rewriting the equation through conspiracies to undermine the resistance’s achievements in Palestine and Lebanon.
In the light of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s tour of the region and amid shuttle political trips between Palestine, Lebanon, the Zionist entity, and some Arab capitals, conducted by Western foreign ministers and politicians, we in the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, assert the following points:
‘First: The US Administration is an accomplice to the aggression against our people and the fraternal Lebanese people because it gives the occupation government a political cover at international forums and provides weapons to this terrorist entity, which violates international law and international human law without being held accountable.
‘We emphasise that any US-Zionist aggression against any Arab or Islamic state is an aggression against the entire Arab and Islamic nation;
‘Second: The US Administration is responsible for all the blood that flows in Palestine and Lebanon because it blocked the imposition of a cease-fire on the Zionist occupation authorities and prevented the taking of practical steps to halt the aggression against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples.
‘Moreover, it provided political and practical support to Zionist crimes and massacres and to the war of annihilation that targets the infrastructure and residential areas in Palestine and Lebanon;
‘Third: Any US attempt to save the Zionist entity at this point in time by drawing up and imposing plans and conspiracies on the region will be met with outright rejection. Such plans and conspiracies will not be implemented against our Palestinian people and the Arab and Islamic peoples;
‘Fourth: The US vision of a new Middle East is an extension of the new world order and imperialist vision, which the United States seeks to impose on the peoples of the region in favour of the Zionist entity.
‘Also, it seeks to perpetuate the Zionist entity’s occupation and support its aggression against the peoples of the region and their resources.
‘We underline the need to put an end to the US intervention in the affairs and policies of the Arab and Islamic states;
‘Fifth: We call on the US Administration to end its bias towards the Zionist occupation authorities and their mad aggression against our Palestinian people and kinsfolk in Lebanon.
‘Also, we call on it to deal with the current developments in a moral way, denounce all forms of Zionist aggression and terrorism, and take immediate action to put an end to them.
‘If it fails to do so, it will have to bear responsibility for the current developments and their local, regional, and international repercussions and to place itself in the circle of hostility to all Arab and Islamic peoples;
‘Sixth: Any resolution to the existing crisis must begin with the achievement of the Palestinian people’s rights. Foremost among them is the release of Palestinian detainees, ending the blockade of the Palestinian Government, dealing positively with the Palestinian people’s democratic choice, recognising the results of the legislative elections, which the world testified were fair, recognising peoples’ right to acquire means of power, and forcing the occupation entity to withdraw from the occupied Arab territories.
‘Jihad will continue until victory has been achieved or martyrdom.’
Meanwhile the Palestinian Foreign Ministry has warned the US against undermining ‘legitimate rights’.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday held the United States responsible for the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples because the US stand supports the Israeli aggression and supplies the Israeli government with weapons of death and destruction.
In a statement a copy of which was sent to Wafa on the occasion of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s visit to the region, the Ministry of Foreign affairs said that any attempt to impose a political agenda which is different from our people’s option and national rights would be met with rejection, particularly the so-called new Middle East.
The new Middle East plan is based on the illusion that it is possible to remove the existing effective political forces in the region’s societies.
The statement underlined that the talk of a new Middle East affirmed that the Israeli campaign against our people was premeditated and that Israel absolutely did not aim to secure the Israeli captive, Gilad Shalit.
The current campaign is aimed at circumventing our people’s democratic option and creating a new equation for the Middle East based on aggression and consolidating the US-Israeli hegemony.
The statement emphasised rejection of any initiative that undercut our people’s inalienable legitimate rights. It said that any attempt at defusing the crisis in the Middle East must begin with ending the aggression against our people, removing its effects, securing the release of Palestinian and Arab POWs from the occupation jails, establishing a fully sovereign Palestinian state and returning the refugees to their homes from which they had been displaced.
The statement pointed out that the continuation of the US attempts to put pressure on some countries to besiege our people and their elected government was considered a violation of all democratic concepts. This will dispel any illusions that the United States can play the honest broker in the region.
The statement warned that the US Administration’s stand on the Palestinian cause would increase the enmity of the Arab and Muslim nations towards the United States, and would sow new seeds of hatred that must draw attention, because the United States should bear the responsibility for the results of this hatred.
The statement said that Rice’s visit to the Palestinian territories took place amid a large-scale Israeli aggression against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples and amid feverish attempts to redraw the political map of the region to suit the goals and purposes that boost the US-Israeli hegemony.
The statement pointed out that the United States was playing an extremely biased role in favour of the Israeli occupation by giving it a political cover in the international forums, especially at the UN Security Council, to exercise its systematic terrorism against our and the peoples of the region.
