Hamas official firm on Israel

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Sunday his Hamas-led government will not recognize Israel and has problems with a widely touted Arab peace plan because it does.

International assistance to the Palestinians has dried up because the militant Hamas movement will not recognize Israel and renounce violence.

But Haniyeh repeated the Islamic militant group’s hardline principle the despite the crippling Western sanctions which have bankrupted his government, led to strikes and demonstrations by public service workers and clashes between Hamas forces and police identified with the rival Fatah.

Haniyeh, addressing an “Iftar” feast at the end of a day of Ramadan fasting, said Hamas and the government “will not recognize or normalize” relations with Israel.

TEHRAN, Iran

Sanctions called ‘rusty’ weapon

Iran called the threat of international sanctions over its disputed nuclear program a “rusty” weapon and repeated Sunday that it would not abandon uranium enrichment.

The six countries at the center of efforts to persuade Iran to drop uranium enrichment – a key step toward making nuclear weapons – said Friday they have agreed to pursue possible sanctions. However, all five permanent Security Council members – the U.S., France, Britain, Russia and China – along with Germany stopped short of demanding that Iran be punished by the council.

“Both officials and people in Iran have always viewed threats of sanctions as a rusty and derelict weapon,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said at a weekly news briefing. “They are accustomed to the threats.”

PARIS

Public-building smoking ban set

The days of cigarette-friendly France are about to go up in smoke.

The prime minister announced Sunday that a ban on smoking in schools, offices and other public buildings will start in February, while restaurants, dance clubs and some bars have until 2008 to comply.

“I am convinced the French people are now ready,” said Dominique de Villepin, joining Ireland, Spain, Britain and Italy, which have adopted similar measures. “The issue is ripe in our country, given the experiences that we know of elsewhere.”

Villepin told LCI television the ban will be ordered “by decree” in the next few days – a step that allows the government to avert a parliamentary debate ahead of presidential and legislative elections next year.

Smokers who violate the ban will face fines of 75 euros ($95 at current exchange rates) while proprietors of buildings where the violations take place will be subject to twice that, Villepin said. “And we will mobilize a sizable inspection team” to ensure that the law is respected, he added.

Compiled from news wires