M Areikat: "We don't have the military power to remove Hamas by force, ... and we don't want Israel to do it for us"

In METimes, here

"...The Palestinian negotiator said that Hamas is a force to be reckoned with and could not be ignored. "Hamas is not only a Palestinian problem. Hamas is a regional problem; Hamas is an international problem," said Areikat. "You cannot simply make them disappear." "We don't have the military power to remove Hamas by force," said Areikat, "and we don't want Israel to do it for us." The only way Hamas can be weakened, said the PLO negotiator, is by the Palestinian Authority and Israel reaching an agreement.

However, nothing is likely to happen in the Middle East without the "immediate, active, full-time, even-handed engagement from the next administration," said Areikat.