June 4, 2003	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 3, 1424

GAZA CITY, June 3: The Hamas has 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 on Tuesday.

“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 said.

“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 on Tuesday 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.

Rantissi accused Bush of “advertising a US-Zionist comedy called the roadmap,” in a sardonic allusion to the internationally drafted peace initiative, which aims to end the 32-month intifada and create a Palestinian state alongside Israel by 2005.

He said Bush’s maiden peace-making voyage to the region aims “to save the bloodthirsty Sharon” and clean up “the abject image of the United States after its crusade on Iraq.”

During his remarks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Bush looked Abbas in the eye and said: “You, sir, have got a responsibility and you have assumed it. I want to work with you as do the other leaders here.

“We must not allow a few people, a few killers, a few terrorists, to destroy the dreams and hopes of the many,” Bush said at the beginning of the half-hour formal session.—AFP