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Source: http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2005/53612.htm
Rice: "Fundamental Contradiction between Armed Activities and the Political Process"
(State Department) After a Middle East Quartet meeting at the UN on Tuesday, Secretary of State Rice said: "[We] talked about the fact that the security situation simply has to improve, that you cannot have a sense of lawlessness, that the Palestinians have to do a better job on the security front and in beginning to deal with terrorism." "You cannot have kind of an armed option within the democratic process. But we understand that the Palestinian political system is in transition, that it is in transition toward a democratic system, and that that has to be a Palestinian process. We would hope that the elections can go forward and that everyone will cooperate to make those elections go forward because elections are fundamental to the continued evolution and development of the Palestinian process. That said, again, we have noted that ultimately it is the case that there is a fundamental contradiction between armed activities and the political process."