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Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2005/01/02/national1340EST0453.DTL
Powell Says Next Palestinian Leader Must End Terrorist Violence
(AP/San Francisco Chronicle) Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday he found it "disturbing" that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas would campaign for support while being carried on the shoulders of gunmen considered heroes to many Palestinians but terrorists by most Israelis. Powell said he remains convinced that Abbas' "prevailing position" is recognition of "the need to end terror and the need to try to persuade all segments of the Palestinian population to move away from terror and to move toward this opportunity for peace." "If they don't move in that direction, then we're going to be stuck again. So we need reformed Palestinian leadership that deals with this terrorist threat," Powell told NBC's "Meet the Press." If Abbas becomes president, "he may have to undertake operations against them....If he does that, and shows a real commitment to end terror, I think he will find an Israeli partner ready to work with him, and he will certainly find the international community, and the especially the United States, ready to play an important role."