The US Senate adopted on Friday a bill to isolate the Hamas-led
Palestinian government and to ban contacts with Hamas.
The legislation, approved by voice vote, is similar to a bill
the House passed last month.
"None of us want to see a penny of American taxpayer money going
to a Hamas-led government that refuses to meet the basic demands
not just of the United States, but of the international community,"
said Democratic Senator Joseph Biden, number two on the Senate
foreign relations committee.
However, the bill allows for continued assistance for food,
water, health and medicine, as well as for democracy promotion,
human rights, and education to help Palestinian president Mahmud
Abbas in "fulfilling his duties."
The United States considers Hamas, formally called the Islamic
Resistance Movement, to be a terror organization. It has rejected
talks with Hamas until it renounces violence, accepts interim peace
deals and recognizes Israel's right to exit.
Hamas, sworn to Israel's destruction, won a large parliamentary
majority in elections in January and formed a Hamas-led Palestinian
cabinet in March.
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(Xinhua News Agency June 24, 2006)
