[AFP/Nasdaq] U.S. Secretary of State Rice said Monday the Islamist Hamas movement should renounce violence and stop shelling Israeli villages to prove that it is ready for peace. "It seems to me that what Hamas needs to do is pretty clear. Renounce violence would be a good step towards showing you actually want peace," she said in Bahrain, following a meeting with counterparts from the Gulf countries, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq. "Hamas can do several things," she said. "They can release the Israeli Corporal (Gilad) Shalit. They can stop rocketing Israeli citizens in Sderot and Ashkelon. They can stop holding hostage the people of Gaza with their own coup d'etat against the legitimate government structures of the Palestinian Authority. They can accept the long-standing obligations of the Palestinian leaders to a number of steps including those that even Yasser Arafat undertook."
2008-04-22 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive