Washington, June 04: A top member of the radical Palestinian group Hamas has said that anti-Israeli violence would stop during peace negotiations if Israel withdrew from Palestinian territories. "We are ready to offer it any time if there is a guarantee that those preliminary steps will be taken as part of a wide scale withdrawal, and not the final steps," Ismail Abu Shanab said in an interview late yesterday on ABC news. Abu Shanab said he would like the United States -- "The only power that can pressure Israel to withdraw" -- to "guarantee all these things, an Israeli withdrawal, even if it is step by step."
Speaking on the eve of US President George W Bush's summit in Jordan with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Palestinian counterpart Mahmud Abbas, the Hamas official called the meeting "a step toward continuing the whole (peace) process." Pressed to clarify if Hamas would put a stop to anti-Israeli violence during the negotiating process if gradual steps were taken to meet the Palestinians' objectives, Abu Shanab said, "Definitely yes. "This is my message ... We want to live in peace." Bureau Report