(State Department) - In an interview with Egypt's Nile Television Tuesday, Secretary of State Colin Powell said: •Nothing is more important than cracking down on those who would use terror to kill innocent people in some hope that this will improve the lives of the Palestinian people or make it possible to move toward that Palestinian state that we are working for. It will not. It will stop moving us in that direction. •Q: But Hamas and Islamic Jihad are saying that we are just retaliating against the Israel raids. Powell: These are excuses....Hamas has said they are entering a temporary ceasefire....That's allowed the violence to go down a little bit. It's not enough....It is time to end the use of terror as a way of achieving a political objective. It's part of the solution for the Middle East. It's also part of the global campaign against terrorism. •Hamas says that they...are prepared to kill innocent people through suicide bombings and through other means as a way of achieving what they say their goal is - a Palestinian state. But is that really what their goal is, or is their goal to destroy Israel? Israel is not going to be destroyed. Israel will be there. Israel is a nation that is an ally of the U.S. and can be a friend of other nations in the region. •Syria and Lebanon have always been part of the President's vision....We know that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and others are plotting these kinds of actions in Damascus. Maybe they're doing it a little more quietly than they used to, and maybe they're not in the same office building they used to be, but they are still there and they are damaging the prospects for peace....If Syria wants a comprehensive peace, then Syria should begin helping us by evicting this kind of individual, these sorts of organizations, from Damascus. •You pose the question, "What are we going to do?" I pose it back to you. What is the Arab world going to do to end the terror, end the violence, and create conditions that will allow us to proceed on the roadmap?
2003-08-14 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive