Palestinian militant group Hamas yesterday dismissed Israeli election results as another face of Israeli policy designed to eliminate the Palestinian issue, while other Arabs warned the Jewish state over unilateral action.

Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's centrist Kadima party hopes to be able to cobble together a parliamentary majority for his plan to pull out of much of the West Bank and draw Israel's borders by 2010.

Such unilateral action has been criticized by the Arabs, and a summit of Arab leaders that ended in Sudan yesterday collectively rejected such moves while repeating its commitment to an 2002 Arab peace initiative based on land-for-peace.

But a sharp reaction came from the political leader of Hamas, the militant group which swept Palestinian legislative elections in January and formed the Palestinian Government. The group has rejected international pressure to reverse its decision not to recognize Israel's right to exist.

"I believe, regardless of who had won in the (Israeli) elections, the Zionist position altogether, particularly that of the three parties (Kadima, Labour and Likud), is hostile toward Palestinian rights and insists on liquidating it and wiping it out," Khaled Mashaal said in Damascus, Syria.

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, speaking to reporters at the annual Arab summit in Khartoum, Sudan, said yesterday it was doubtful that the Israeli elections would bring anything new.

"The Arab world must study all its options. Because it is absolutely out of the question to accept ... unilateral withdrawals according to Israeli whims," he said.

Source: China Daily