Palestinian tells UN his people want peace -- US reaction?

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-un-palestinians-israel,1,3324383.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines

Palestinian Tells UN His People Want Peace
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
7:13 AM PDT, April 5, 2006


UNITED NATIONS -- The Palestinian foreign minister said in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan that the new Hamas-led government believes its struggle against Israel is just, but it wants to live side by side in peace with its neighbors.

The language in Mahmoud Zahar's Tuesday letter -- his first official correspondence with Annan since Hamas officially took power last week -- was reminiscent of that used by President Bush and the so-called Quartet of international parties trying to promote a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.


The United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia have called for two states living side by side in peace and security.

But Zahar also lambasted Israel's "illegal colonial policies" which he said "will ultimately diminish any hopes for the achievement of settlement and peace based on a two-state solution."