Hamas: Obama wasting our time

One of senior Hamas leaders says US was “wasting our time” to forge a deal with the Israeli regime despite continued construction of illegal settlements.

The Obama administration is “just wasting our time and giving some hints that something can be achieved by this process,” Mahmoud al-Zahar said on Thursday.

“Resistance” was the most effective way for Palestinians to get Israel to withdraw from the occupied West Bank, he said. “If there is a real resistance against Israel, then Israel will leave,” he added.

Israel pulled out its soldiers and dismantled illegal settlements in Gaza in 2005 “not because of goodwill,” but due to severe resistance, he said.

The Obama administration has been trying to persuade leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority to return to the negotiating table which were stalled only three weeks after they resumed on Sept. 2.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas agreed to try to reach an agreement within a year. But the talks faded away after Israel refused to stop construction of illegal settlements in the occupied territories.

Al-Zahar said he is “hoping” that the talks succeed “but I have a big doubt.”

Hamas has said resistance will stop when Israel withdraws from territories occupied in 1967 and allows Palestinians to return to areas in Israel from where they were forced out in 1948.