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West urged to keep aid coming should Hamas win

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Wednesday, January 25, 2006

LONDON — A leading group has urged the West to support a Palestinian Authority dominated by Hamas.

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group raised the likelihood of a Hamas takeover of the PA in wake of Palestinian Legislative Council elections on Jan. 25. ICG said in a report that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas would be unable to confront Hamas with either military or political means.

"The PA is not in a military, let alone a political, position to forcibly disarm Hamas," the report, entitled "Enter Hamas: The Challenges of Political Integration," said. "Since taking office, Abbas has been paralyzed by a sclerotic political system, and he has more than once staked his success on successful, inclusive elections."

The report warned that unless incorporated into the PA, Hamas would renew attacks against Israel. ICG said Hamas rule on the local and national level "gradually will steer it away from the military path."

As a result, the European Union and United States were urged to maintain massive economic aid to the PA under Hamas control. ICG warned against Western threats of an aid cutoff should Hamas win PLC elections.

"With the prospect as remote as ever of a renewed peace process or a weakened PA cracking down on a strengthened Hamas, the international community's best remaining option is to maximize the Islamist movement's incentives to move in a political direction through a policy of gradual, conditional engagement," the report said.

ICG said Abbas could offer to share power with Hamas in exchange for a ceasefire with Israel. The report said Hamas has maintained its pledge to reduce attacks against Israel from the Gaza Strip and largely refrained from imposing an Islamic agenda on municipalities.

At the same time, Palestinians are concerned that Hamas plans to launch a wave of attacks after the PLC elections. The report said the attacks would contain new weapons received or developed over the last four months.

"There is a less encouraging side," the report said. "Hamas continues to straddle its public and clandestine wings, subject to competing views from different leadership elements, and at least partially susceptible to Syrian and Iranian pressures. Perhaps most significantly, it has neither renounced violence, nor accepted Israel's existence."

ICG recommended that Western donors demand that Hamas renew its unilateral ceasefire for six months and ban the display of weapons. The report also called for the halt to the acquisition, testing and production of weapons.

In return, the EU should remove Hamas from its list of terrorist groups and engage with Hamas-controlled Palestinian municipalities.

"[The EU should demand Hamas] decommissioning of weaponry that most threatens the cease-fire, including rockets and weapons laboratories, subject to independent international verification," the report said.


Copyright © 2006 East West Services, Inc.

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