VOA标准英语2008年-Palestinian President Calls on Hamas to Accept

By Jim Teeple
Jerusalem
01 January 2008

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has renewed his call for Hamas militants¹ to accept early elections. VOA's Jim Teeple reports from Jerusalem, internal Palestinian clashes in Gaza have killed at least six Palestinians.

During the past few days clashes between Hamas militants and backers of Mr. Abbas' Fatah movement have increased in the Gaza Strip.

Speaking in the West Bank, Mr. Abbas called for Hamas to return to a dialogue with Fatah.

Mr. Abbas says it is time for a new page to be turned in Palestinian relations, saying Hamas should accept his offer of dialogue. He also called for Hamas to cede² its control of Gaza and agree to early elections.

A Hamas spokesman immediately rejected Mr. Abbas' call, saying there were no practical steps that could be taken at the present time to start such a dialogue.

In his remarks, Mr. Abbas again called for Israel stop settlement construction in the West Bank.

Speaking on Israeli radio, Israeli Cabinet member and Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon said Israel should dismantle³ illegal outposts in the West Bank.

Ramon says Israel should move immediately to dismantle all outposts built after 2000, because not to do so could raise tensions between the United States and Israel during President George Bush's upcoming visit to the region.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Jerusalem Post newspaper, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel might have to share Jerusalem with Palestinians in an eventual⁴ peace agreement. Israel captured Arab East Jerusalem in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and considers the entire city its eternal capital. Palestinians want Arab East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future Palestinian state.

President Bush travels to the Middle East in less than two weeks in a bid to encourage Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to step up progress towards a negotiated peace settlement - something Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to do at the U.S. sponsored Annapolis peace conference last November.

1 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

2 cede   

v.割让，放弃

参考例句：

• The debater refused to cede the point to her opponent.辩论者拒绝向她的对手放弃其主张。
• Not because I'm proud.In fact,in front of you I cede all my pride.这不是因为骄傲，事实上我在你面前毫无骄傲可言。

3 dismantle   

vt.拆开，拆卸；废除，取消

参考例句：

• He asked for immediate help from the United States to dismantle the warheads.他请求美国立即提供援助，拆除这批弹头。
• The mower firmly refused to mow,so I decided to dismantle it.修完后割草机还是纹丝不动，于是，我决定把它拆开。

4 eventual   

adj.最后的，结局的，最终的

参考例句：

• Several schools face eventual closure.几所学校面临最终关闭。
• Both parties expressed optimism about an eventual solution.双方对问题的最终解决都表示乐观。