Mashaal: Revive the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks Doomed to Failure

Head of the Political Bureau of the Palestinian Hamas movement Khalid Mashaal underlined that Washington’s efforts to restore peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians are doomed to failure since US Secretary of State John Kerry 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 failure 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.

John Kerry 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.

On Tuesday, he hailed the Arab League’s revised Middle East peace initiative as “a very big step forward”.

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

In meetings this week 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,” said Haniyeh.

“The initiative contains numerous dangers to our people in the occupied land of 1967, 1948 and to our people in exile.”

“To those who speak of land swaps we say: Palestine is not a property, it is not for sale, not for a swap and cannot be traded,” Haniyeh said.

Haniyeh said the Palestinian Authority, headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, was to blame for inspiring the softer Arab position because it accepted the need for land swaps with Israel.