 WASHINGTON - US-led efforts to isolate the Hamas-led Palestinian government could radicalize the Arab world’s most educated population and increased contact could foster peace with Israel, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said on Wednesday. Prince Saud Al Faisal said refusing to deal with Hamas and blocking pay for Palestinian doctors, teachers and engineers reflected a “twisted logic” that could alienate “the real supporters of the (Palestinian) peace movement.”
| Because the educated Paleos have been demanding peace all this time, y'know. |
The Bush administration advocates a tough policy against Hamas, an Islamic militant group sworn to IsraelÂ’s destruction and regarded as terrorist by the United States, EU and Israel. All have severed ties with the Palestinian government, cutting off hundreds of millions of dollars in aid.
Saud told a small group of reporters invited to the Saudi Embassy in Washington he has argued strenuously about the policy with the administration. “If you use inclusion rather than exclusion, if you talk to them, they can be convinced of the advisability of pursuing a peace process, if they are assured of equal treatment that any conditions put on one side are not excluded from being applied to the other side,” he said.
| They're just mis-understood, after all. |
By denying pay for Palestinian professionals, “you’re adding radicalism to the rank and file of these people and you are not harming the government,” he said.
Hamas, which took office in March, has ruled out peace talks with Israel. Nevertheless, Saud said, “I think we have a possibility of a fresh start” with the new Hamas government and Ehud Olmert as Israel’s new prime minister. The two new governments are “not tied to their fixed positions in the past and we hope that the start of (Israel-Palestinian) negotiations happens before they fix positions,” he said.
| Hamas certainly seems wedded to its original proposition of killing all the Joooos. |
Saud criticized those who reject the Hamas government because they do not like the election result. “We always warned against elections, that they sometimes bring results that you don’t want, and that’s why we haven’t applied this system yet in Saudi Arabia,” he said.
| "Because we saw what happened when the Paleos elected a bunch of thugs to run their government, and believe you me, we don't want that kind of trouble!" |
He rejected claims there should never be negotiations with groups deemed terrorist, noting British and US talks with the Irish Republican Army when the group was still bearing arms. ”So the principle is not always followed,” he said.
| And that worked so well, Northern Ireland is a sea of tranquility -- oh, actually it is compared to Gaza. |
Saud faulted Israel for demanding “complete security before it starts negotiating a peace process. It is exactly the reverse -- you achieve peace and then you have security.”
| If you don't have any modicum of security you can't start negotiating peace, or else it becomes a discussion of how best to slit your own throat. |
Saudi Arabia will recognize Israel “when there is peace,” he added.
| Translation from the Arabic: 'never'. |
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