Deutsche Presse-Agentur  --  Arab News

KUWAIT CITY, 19 April 2004 — Kuwait’s government yesterday condemned the killing of Hamas leader Abdulaziz Al-Rantissi, the Kuwait News Agency reported.

During its weekly session, the Cabinet denounced the Israeli assassination as an act of terrorism, and in an official statement issued afterward, upheld its rejection of all types of terrorist acts whether they are state-sponsored or individual acts, KUNA said.

“The cruel crime is part of ongoing Israeli practices against the rights of the Palestinian people and mirrors the terrorism Israel exercises that would wipe out all efforts aimed at achievement of a just and lasting peace in the region,” said the statement which also called for swift action by the international community to put an end to Israeli brutality.

Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah sent a cable of condolences to the Rantissi family, praising him as a hero who defended the Palestinian cause.

The Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM) also issued a statement that condemned the assassination. The ICM advised that in appreciation anti-Zionist feelings of the Kuwaiti people, the government should reject President Bush’s nomination of Richard Le Baron as the next US ambassador to Kuwait, since he served in Israel.

The group warned that Rantissi’s assassination “... is a stark message to all those who still adhere to the fringes of the lie of peace, coexistence and peace initiatives with the eternal Zionist enemy.”

The National Union of Kuwaiti Students called for a boycott of American and Zionist goods and said Washington protected Israel through its “biased veto” in the UN.

About 200 Kuwaiti students shouted slogans against Israel as well as Bush. Calling him the “martyr of the Muslim nation,” the mostly Islamist students and speakers urged Arab countries to stop the peace process with Israel and turn instead to jihad.