A spokesman for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat congratulated the American people on Wednesday for electing George W. Bush as their president and said he hoped Bush would help the Palestinians establish an independent state.
"We congratulate the American people for the elections and we hope that President Bush will continue on the path of the peace process and that the United States, which confirmed its democracy with the elections, will help the Palestinian people confirm their own democracy by establishing an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital," Marwan Kanafani told AFP.
Asked if the Palestinians were concerned that the arrival of a new US administration would delay the peace process, already on hold because of the past six weeks of violence, Kanafani said he did not think the process would stop.
"I do not think that the peace process will stop and the current American peace team will continue ... their work under the new American administration," he said – GAZA CITY (AFP)
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