Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said Thursday he was ready to maintain a calm with Israel if the Zionist regime does likewise. "If they are going to continue commitment to what is called quietness, then we will continue," he said in an interview with Associated Press Television News. "But if not, then I think we will have no option, but to protect our people and our land."
Asked if a Hamas government would enter peace talks with Israel, Zahar replied there is no point to hold dialogue at this time. "We have no peace process," he said. "We are not going to mislead our people to tell them we are waiting, meeting, for a peace process that is nothing."
He also promised a complete overhaul of Palestinian public services and administration. "We are going to change every aspect, as regards the economy, as regards industry, as regards agriculture, as regards social aid, as regards health, administration, education," he noted.
Meanwhile, United States President George W. Bush urged Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday to remain in office. "We'd like him stay in power. I mean we'd like him to stay in office. He is in power. We'd like him to stay in office."
Bush reiterated the American stance that it will not deal with Palestinian leaders who do not recognize Israel's right to exist. "I don't see how you can be a partner in peace if you advocate the destruction of a country as part of your platform. And I know you know you can't be a partner in peace if you have - if your party has got an armed wing," Bush told a White House news conference.
Asked if the United States was ruling out dealing with a Palestinian government that was made up partly of Hamas, he replied: "They don't have a government yet, so you're asking me to speculate on what the government will look like. I have made it very clear however that a political party that articulates the destruction of Israel as part of a platform is a party with which we will not deal."
On her part, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday there could be no Middle East peace process if Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist. "You can't have a peace process if you're not committed to the right of your partner to exist," she told the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, speaking by videolink.
"And I think you will hear the international community speak clearly on exactly those principles over the next day. There will be some difficult choices before those in whom the Palestinian people are placing their trust."
Rice said the U.S. position on Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organization, was unchanged. "As we have said, you cannot have one foot in politics and the other in terror. Our position on Hamas has therefore not changed."
Rice added: "Anyone who wants to govern the Palestinian people and do so with the support of the international community has got to be committed to a two-state solution, must be committed to the right of Israel to exist. But if there is to be a future that can answer the aspirations for peace of the Palestinian people ... then it is going to have to be a future that renounces violence and terrorism."
