|
*
Hamas ready for unconditional talks with Abbas: Meshaal
AFP, January 4,
2008
DAMASCUS, Jan
4, 2008 (AFP) - The exiled political chief of the
Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement reiterated in a Friday
speech he was ready to talk unconditionally with Palestinian
president Mahmud Abbas.
"We are ready
for an unconditional dialogue in which all issues will be
discussed, including that of bringing forward elections. I
say to the leaders of Fatah that our differences are
political," Khaled Meshaal said, in a speech in Damascus on
the 20th anniversary of the founding of Hamas.
On Monday,
Abbas said he wanted to "open a new page" with Hamas if it
gave up control of the Gaza Strip, which it took forcibly in
mid-June last year from forces loyal to the secular
Palestinian president.
The following
day, senior Hamas official Mahmud Zahar said the movement
welcomed dialogue, but he adamantly rejected the conditions
Abbas set for talks aimed at halting the factional struggle.
"No Arab
country has asked Hamas to give up on the current situation
in Gaza," Meshaal said, adding the government of Palestinian
prime minister Salam Fayyad should "go."
"Our people
must stop this government from selling off Palestinian
interests," he added of the administration that in effect
governs in the West Bank only, and accused it of hounding
Hamas members.
"Hamas will
resist until the last Israeli soldier leaves Palestinian
soil," Meshaal said. "This is a strategic choice. Resistance
will continue -- no one can stop it."
He denied there
had been contacts between the Islamist movement and "the
Zionists who are our enemies," and said Hamas had turned
down a European proposal for such a meeting to discuss ways
of calming the situation.
"Gaza is
starving and surrounded but it is still resisting," Meshaal
said. He called upon "Arab leaders to take a courageous
decision in order to lift the embargo" on the impoverished
territory.
The Islamist
leader also said an Israeli soldier seized by Gaza militant
groups in a cross-border raid on June 15, 2006, would not be
freed unilaterally.
"We will not
free Gilad Shalit unless our prisoners are released" by
Israel, he said.
Ahmed Jibril,
leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
- General Command (PFLP-GC) and representatives of other
Damascus-based Palestinian militant movements also attended
Friday's meeting marking the Hamas anniversary. |
