Gaza City, June 03: The hardline group Hamas threatened to disavow Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas as a representative of the Palestinians if he does not reject US President George W Bush's comments at the Middle East peace summit in Egypt today. "Bush's speech is very dangerous because he is asking Abu Mazen (Abbas' nom de guerre) to stop Palestinian resistance. If (Abbas) does not condemn his words, we can no longer consider him an envoy of the Palestinian people," Hamas leader Abdul Aziz Rantissi told.
"We want Abu Mazen to clearly condemn Zionist terrorism, to which Bush turned a blind eye, and support Palestinian resistance," he added.
Earlier, Rantisi denounced the two peace summits Bush is attending this week, which were kicked off with the first meeting today in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Bush met with Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, King Abdullah II of Jordan, King Hamad of Bahrain and Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia.
"Summits sponsored by the United States are always doomed to failure, and those in Sharm el-Sheikh and Aqaba will share the same fate," he told reporters in Gaza City, Hamas' stronghold in the occupied territories.
His reference to Aqaba was to the Jordanian resort where Bush is slated to tomorrow with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Bureau Report