Rice: Hamas needs Israel to govern

WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday night that the economic aid provided by Iran and other Arab countries to the Palestinian Authority cannot serve as a substitute to the funds suspended by the West.

Rice stressed that the Hamas government will have to find a way to integrate into the international community and cooperate with Israel.

Referring to the aid promised to the Hamas government by the Arab world, the secretary of state said that "they've gotten some pledges. But I would just note that the financial situation of the Palestinian Authority is not a very good one and Hamas is going to need to govern in a way that it can have a cooperative relationship with Israel. The fact is that those economies are too intertwined to do otherwise."

Speaking to journalists from around the world, who arrived in Washington as part of an education program held by the State Department, Rice said: "If it's the USD 50 million from Iran, I think the Palestinian budget is about USD 190 million a month. Just to give you a scale. I do think Hamas is going to have to find a way to make its peace with the international community."

Rice made it clear that "We cannot fund and will not fund a Palestinian government that does not recognize the Quartet principles: recognition of Israel's right to exist and so forth."

"Hamas has got to make a choice. If it is going to govern, it is going to have to govern on internationally acceptable standards and that means that you renounce violence and terrorism," she added.

The United States continues to provide humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees, Rice said, but it will not fund a Palestinian government that does not recognize internationally accepted principles.

Mashaal: We won't recognize Israel

Meanwhile, Hamas Politburo Chief Khaled Mashaal, speaking in a Damascus conference, vowed that his movement and government would not recognize Israel.

"In response to those who say that Hamas has abandoned the resistance, I say that we have not abandoned a thing. Our refusal to recognize Israel is resistance, and when we refuse to give in to pressures and impositions it's resistance. When we back suicide bombings, it's resistance. When we support the fighters and help them, it's resistance. No one will determine for us how to run our war," he said.

He added that Hamas would not allow "collaborators with Israel to take power" with Israeli and American support. Mashaal slammed intra-Palestinian attempts to undermine the Hamas government said they were tantamount to a military revolution.

"What's happening today in the Palestinian Authority is not opposition activity, but rather, a conspiracy to thwart the elected Palestinian government," he said.