Disarm Hamas, U.S. says

Israel won't guarantee Palestinians that targeted killings will be stopped.
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Calling Hamas an "enemy of peace," U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said today that the Palestinian Authority must take decisive steps to disarm the Islamic militant group. He backed Israel, which has said a cease-fire alone is not sufficient.
Powell spoke today at a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who said no progress can be made on a U.S.-backed peace plan until Palestinian security forces fight the militias.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who will meet with Powell later today, is trying to negotiate a truce with Hamas and other armed groups, and has said he will not use force against them for fear of triggering a civil war.
Powell said the Palestinians must go beyond a truce.
"I am anxious to speak to Prime Minister Abbas about efforts they are making to bring violence under control, to end violence, not just through the means of having a cease-fire, but going beyond that ... to end violence and the capacity for violence," Powell said.
"The enemy of peace has been Hamas," Powell said, adding that as long as the group remains committed to terror and violence, "this is a problem we have to deal with in its entirety."
Doesn't accept plan
Hamas has killed hundreds of Israelis in shootings and bombings in recent years. It has said it does not accept the road map peace plan, launched at a Mideast summit two weeks ago by President Bush.
Powell did not say how far he wants the Palestinians to go in a crackdown on armed groups.
Sharon said the Palestinians must realize that without a decisive war on terror, there will be no progress in peace talks.
"A true war on terrorism, on its infrastructure, on the entities that finance it, on those who initiate it and on the dispatchers, is the way to make way and move ahead in a sincere and genuine process," Sharon said.
However, there appeared to be differences between the two leaders on how much time the Palestinian security forces should be given to get organized. Powell urged both sides to show patience, while Sharon said that once the Palestinians have accepted security responsibility in areas from which Israel withdraws, they will be held accountable for any attacks launched from those areas.
Attack on Israelis
As the two leaders spoke, an Israeli motorist was killed in a Palestinian shooting attack in the West Bank, and three people were wounded, paramedics said. Two of the wounded were in serious condition.
Beyond the Israeli-Palestinian disagreement over the handling of the militias, the two sides also are at odds over Israel's targeted killings of wanted Palestinians and the scope of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza. Both issues were discussed, without result, at a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian security officials and U.S. monitors late Thursday.
Need guarantee
Palestinians say that to persuade militant groups, particularly Hamas, to accept a cease-fire deal, they need an Israeli guarantee that targeted killings will be halted.
Sharon refuses to give such a blanket promise, saying he reserves the right to go after "ticking bombs," a term generally understood to refer to an assailant about to carry out an attack. However, Sharon's aides have said this also applies to those planning attacks.
Reacting to Sharon's comments today, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a Hamas leader wounded last week in an Israeli missile strike meant to kill him, said that "such statements will not terrorize us and will not force us to stop our resistance to occupation."
Twenty-seven Israelis have been killed in bombings and shootings since the Mideast summit June 4. During the same period, 36 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes, and four more died while carrying out attacks.
Powell said Israel has begun carrying out one obligation under the peace plan -- the dismantling of West Bank settlement outposts. "We have begun to execute the road map," Powell said, adding he would talk to Israeli leaders about taking additional steps.
In the first stage of the road map, Israel has to remove dozens of outposts. In recent days, it has dismantled 11, including an inhabited one, Mitzpeh Yitzhar. At that outpost, hundreds of setters brawled with about 1,000 Israeli troops. Thirty people were hurt and more than a dozen arrested.
Israel must also withdraw troops gradually to positions held before the outbreak of fighting in September 2000, while the Palestinians are required to dismantle militant groups.
Powell said agreement has not yet been reached on the terms of an Israeli withdrawal from large parts of Gaza, but said there was some progress.
"The conversations are serious and the issues ... are being reduced in number, and the differences are being narrowed," Powell said.
Control over road
One of the issues in those talks is control over the main north-south road in Gaza.
Israel insists that roadblocks it erected along the road after the outbreak of fighting remain in place. The Palestinians insist the barriers, meant to protect Jewish settlers from attack by Palestinian militants, be removed so Gaza residents can see an actual improvement in their daily lives.
The checkpoints have caused great hardship in the past 33 months. Palestinian motorists are often unable to get from one end of Gaza to the other, meaning they can't reach schools and jobs. Before September 2000, Israeli and Palestinian security forces jointly patrolled the road.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said Abbas would ask Powell to pressure Israel on the issue of targeted killings. "The problem we are facing is that there is no clear Israeli commitment to stop all acts of violence and assassinations against Palestinians," Shaath said. "We want him to pressure the Israeli government to bring this commitment."
Abbas will also talk to Powell about the role of the U.S. monitoring team that arrived earlier this week. The team is headed by John Wolf, a senior State Department official.
So far, Wolf has chaired two joint meetings with Israeli and Palestinian security officials. The team is to supervise implementation of the peace plan, but it remains unclear how much authority it has to make a ruling in a dispute.
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