27 March 2009

Senior Hamas political leader MP Dr. Mahmud Al-Zahhar has revealed on Thursday that his Movement wants the Cairo dialogue to be clear in order not to give way for repeating previous "bad" experiences, including disavowal of certain parties of their obligations.

Zahhar's remarks were uttered as he delivered a speech in the Palestinian refugee camp of Al-Yarmouk in the Syrian capital Damascus, where he also underlined that Hamas possesses force more than that it had during the Israeli war on Gaza.

"This time, the [inter-Palestinian] negotiations will not give chance to any party to disavow its obligations, and we won't allow repetition of what had happened in the past….. we want genuine political partnership and not political monopoly that would finish off the resistance program as the case is in the West Bank", Zahhar underscored.

He explained, "We discussed the election law so as not to give way for those trying to tamper with the choice of the Palestinian people, and we are talking about the PLO in a bid to get it out of the grave and clothe it with the dress of the resistance again".

Furthermore, Zahhar stressed that his Movement wasn’t fighting for political positions, underlining that Hamas was and still is striving to unite the Palestinian rank and unite the Palestinian decision, and that it wants to "build and not to demolish".

Reacting to the Israeli suggestion of excluding a number of Palestinian captives on Hamas's list, and of deporting other captives out of Palestine, Zahhar underlined, "We won't allow the Israelis to empty the prisoners' swapping deal of its core".

The Hamas's official pointed out that during the Israeli war on Gaza, the Israeli slogan was "we must win the war in Gaza", and that they (the Israelis) targeted Gaza based on their belief that it was the weakest point, and that they could easily achieve victory and regain their fame; but, he added, the result was in the opposite as they failed in Gaza, and Hamas wasn’t defeated.

According to Zahhar, the battle of Gaza was of a number of strategic dimensions as it strongly hit the Israeli security theory after rockets of the Palestinian resistance reached and hit in the depth of the 1948-occupied Palestinian lands.

Hamas authorized by resistance to handle truce and Shalit files

Meanwhile, Abu Abeer, the spokesman of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), has underlined Thursday that the Palestinian resistance gave Hamas Movement the full authority to handle the two files of truce and prisoners' swap deal being the keenest party on the Palestinian national constants.

"The Palestinian resistance factions, especially those which participated in capturing Gilad Shalit, have authorized Hamas Movement to handle the issue of truce, and the issue of Shalit with the Israeli occupation authority because Hamas is the keenest Palestinian party on preserving the Palestinian national constants, and the party that is eligible to lead the Palestinian people", underscored Abu Abir in an interview with the PIC.

He explained that the IOA reneged on its promises in the last round of negotiations with the aim to gain more time in searching for the captured Israeli soldier, and to discourage the Palestinian resistance in order not to think of capturing more IOF soldiers in the future.

But Abu Abir reiterated Hamas's stand that Shalit won't see the light of freedom if Palestinian captives on Hamas's list aren’t also freed and reunited with their children and families, underlining that conditions of the Palestinian resistance in this regard were very clear.

In a related matter, the PA ministry of prisoners and ex-prisoners' affairs accused the Israeli occupation government of foiling the prisoners' swap deal with the Palestinian resistance after it reneged on previous pledges it made, and refused to free Palestinian captives on Hamas's list.

The ministry's remarks came in reaction to statements uttered by Noam Shalit, the father of the captured Israeli soldier, in which he "advised" Hamas to exploit the period before the formation of the next Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu, describing such opportunity as the "last chance".

"Hamas and other Palestinian resistance factions holding Shalit have clearly put their conditions to free him (Shalit), but the party that indeed hinders the deal is the IOA and not Hamas", the ministry underlined in a statement it issued in this regard.

In a message it addressed to Shalit's father, the ministry underscored, "Your son isn't dearer than our sons detained in Israeli jails; hence, if you want to conclude the deal and want to reunite with Gilad, then you should pressure your government into meeting conditions of the Palestinian resistance that won't be compromised".