Palestine

Hamas Envoy: Palestinians Not to Benefit from Negotiations with Israel

Hamas Envoy

Hamas Representative in Tehran Khalid Qadoumi described revival of the so-called Palestinian-Israeli ‘peace talks’ as harmful to the Palestinian nation, and said sitting at the negotiating table with Israel, which is in a weak position now, was the Palestinian Authority’s gift to the Zionist regime.
“The experience of negotiations with Israel which started from 1991 shows that the Palestinians have gained nothing from talks with the Zionists; thus, the Palestinian side in Ramallah and the PA are expected not to repeat the same mistake again and refrain from continuing negotiations with that regime,” Qadoumi told FNA on Saturday.

Noting that the PA, specially its President Mahmoud Abbas, don’t understand the vital priorities of the Palestinians, he said they have prioritized negotiations with Israel, while the regime is now in its weakest position after the recent revolutions in the region and they are saving Israel from its worst situation in recent years.

Last month, US Secretary of State John Kerry claimed that he finally “convinced Israeli and Palestinian officials to return to the negotiating table.” This is while the prospects for peace appear just as unlikely as before.
Head of the Political Bureau of the Palestinian Hamas movement Khalid Mashaal had underlined in May that Washington’s efforts to restore peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians are doomed to fail since the US secretary of state has not presented any solution to the ongoing crisis.

“The US secretary of state has not presented any solution to settle the conflicts between the Palestinians and the Zionist regime and therefore the country’s efforts are doomed to fail similar to the past,” Mashaal said.

He complained that John Kerry has not adopted a serious approach to settle the Palestinian issue fairly because it has never pressured Israel as the occupier, and has just pressured the Arab sides and the Palestinian authority and presented some useless projects.

The US secretary of state has claimed to be seeking to revive direct peace talks that broke down in 2010 over the issue of Jewish settlement building in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Kerry hailed the Arab League’s revised Middle-East peace initiative as “a very big step forward”.

But Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh at the time rejected the plan, saying outsiders could not decide the fate of the Palestinians.

In the meetings held in early May in Washington, Arab states appeared to soften their 2002 peace plan, acknowledging that Israelis and Palestinians may have to swap land in any eventual peace deal.

Addressing hundreds of worshippers in a Gaza mosque, Haniyeh said it was a concession that other Arabs were not authorized to make.

“The so-called new Arab initiative is rejected by our people, by our nation and no one can accept it,” Haniyeh said.

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