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Peres praises Palestinian leadership
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-10 21:33
Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres praised the new Palestinian
leadership Thursday for opposing terrorism as the two sides try to preserve a
fragile truce.
"Finally the Palestinians came to the conclusion that terror brings them more
damage than hope," Peres said in an interview with The Associated Press. He was
alluding to the truce announced last month by Israeli and Palestinian leaders to
end four years of bloodshed.
Peres said that in the Middle East more is achieved with negotiations than
with violence, citing Egypt as an example of a country with which Israel has
engaged in both. Israel seized the Gaza Strip from Egypt in the 1967 Middle East
war. The two countries signed a peace accord in 1979.
Peres was visiting Madrid to take part in an international conference on
terrorism.
A suicide bombing Feb. 25 in Tel Aviv — blamed on the militant group Islamic
Jihad — has threatened to undermine the Israeli-Palestinian truce. Relations are
also tense because of an impasse over Israel's transfer of West Bank towns to
Palestinian control.
Peres said Israel hopes to withdraw Jewish settlements from Gaza and part of
the West Bank by the end of July and then move on to the so-called "road map"
peace plan.
"I think both sides, the Palestinians and the Israelis, will like to continue
this tranquility, and wind it up with a first serious step toward peace," said
Peres. "There are still people skeptical, worried, but it's really an important
atmosphere," he said.
Talking specifically about Palestinian suicide bombers, Perez said: "They
don't respect the lives of others, nor they respect their own lives. They are
not human beings, they are human bombs."
"They (terrorists) don't carry a message, they don't provide a hope. It will
take time, it may be expensive, but they are doomed to disappear," Peres said.
On the issue of a redeployment of Syrian troops in Lebanon, Peres said he
supported a full pullout.
"Occupation does not have a future. People are fighting for their
independence and they will aim to live together in a land of integrity and
peace," said Peres.
Peres also praised recent massive anti-Syria street protests in Beirut for
being peaceful.
"What's interesting in all those demonstrations is that they're bloodless,
people were not killed, fire was not used and the demonstration is an act of
democracy."
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