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British FM: Israel’s Assassination Policy Illegal

Published: Mon 31 May 2004 08:57 AM
British FM: Israel’s Assassination Policy Illegal
LONDON -- The British Foreign Minster, Jack Straw, criticized on Saturday the continued Israeli assassination policy and the Apartheid Wall construction in the occupied Palestinian territories, regarding such Israeli practices as ‘illegal’.
Straw, in an interview with “Alhayat” London-based Arab newspaper, expressed shock and grief for the scenes of corps and destruction he has seen on TV screens in the Gaza Strip City of Rafah.
The British FM said that the cycle of violence, horror and siege makes hopes of peace impossible and leads Israel to further isolation and fear throughout the region.
He called on Israelis and Palestinians to necessarily abide by the Road Map peace plan which has been set forth by the Quartet (United Nations, United States, Russia, European Union), stressing the need that the international community works on helping establishing a sovereign Palestinian state on contingent Palestinian lands.
Straw made clear that since the 1967, the international community has been committed to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, calling on Israel to stop actions that undermine credibility and rather takes steps that improve the Palestinian welfare.
Last week we voted in the UN Security Council for a resolution that condemns the killing of the Palestinian civilians in the Rafah city and calls Israel to live up with the rules of international law by refraining from demolishing Palestinian-owned homes, the British senior official pointed out.
He also hinted that the UK has backed Israeli Prime Minster Ariel Sharon’s withdrawal plan, on which Israel would dismantle some settlements in the Gaza Strip, however, the UK deemed that such withdrawal be carried out in coordination with the Palestinian National Authority.
FM Straw stressed that his country is committed to ensuring smooth Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as a first move, to be followed with similar major steps, leading eventually to a final solution based on the Road Map and the relevant United Nations’ resolutions.
Straw’s remarks came concurrent with the extrajudicial execution of two Palestinian resistance members by Israeli warplanes in Gaza yesterday night, causing the death of a third passerby and wounding nine others
In the meantime, the well-known British veteran journalist, Patrick Sail, condemned the ‘criminal’ Israeli destruction throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, attributing such actions to Ariel Sharon’s character, which is considered the ‘bloodiest’ in Israel’s history.

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