US President Bill Clinton's meeting later Thursday with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat aimed at bringing peace in the Middle East is doomed to fail as it will not address basic Palestinian demands, militant fundamentalist group Hamas said.
"This meeting and other secret meetings will fail because they are not looking after the hopes of our people," Hamas said in a statement.
"We only expect bad things to come of this meeting," Hamas said, adding that the Intifada, or uprising, against Israel would continue no matter what Arafat may agree with Clinton," said Hamas, which is violently opposed to the peace process.
"We call on our people not to listen to calls to cool down the Intifada, but rather to escalate it and to put fire under the feet of the occupiers (the Israelis).
"We will not return to negotiations. The peace process is now dead and there's no use trying to breathe life back into its corpse."
Hamas also called on the Islamic summit in Qatar this weekend to ensure Arab states cut all ties with Israel, "and give more money and weapons to the Palestinian people and to pressure the United States to stop the aggression of the Israelis."
It called on Muslims around the world to boycott US and Israeli goods and reaffirmed its call on Palestinians to make every Friday a "day of rage" against Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.
Clinton was due to meet with Arafat in Washington later Thursday and with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak on Sunday in what some observers see as his last chance to push forward the Middle East peace process during his tenure, which ends on January 20 – GAZA CITY (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
