Hamas ‘will never recognise Israel’ - Gaza PM
Gaza: Hamas “will never recognise Israel,” its Gaza Prime
Pinister said Saturday in a speech in Iran that is likely to complicate
Palestinian efforts to form a unity government in the teeth of
opposition from the Jewish state.
“They want us to recognise the Israeli occupation and cease
resistance but, as the representative of the Palestinan people and in
the name of all the world's freedom seekers, I am announcing from Azadi
Square in Tehran that we will never recognise Israel,” Ismail Haniya
said.
“The resistance will continue until all Palestinian land, including
Al-Quds (Jerusalem), has been liberated and all the refugees have
returned,” he said.
Haniya's reiteration of Hamas's long-held stance was made on the
occasion of Iran's commemoration of its 1979 Islamic revolution.
The Gaza leader spoke to an estimated crowd of 30,000 from a stage
alongside Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“The Iranian people are a partner in this victory,” Haniya said. “God
willing, we will met you along with other Palestinians in a free
Palestine, in its capital Al-Quds,” he said.
Israel rejects efforts by Hamas to link up with Fatah, the secular
faction of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas that runs the West Bank,
to form a unity government. It views Hamas as a terrorist organisation
and Iran as its sponsor and weapon supplier.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told UN envoys on Thursday
that a Hamas-Fatah accord signed this week to partner in the new
government “does not contribute to the advancement of peace negotiations
or the well-being of the Palestinian people.” The so-called Quartet of
diplomatic players in the Middle East peace process -- the European
Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- has long
demanded that any Palestinian government including Hamas must meet
certain conditions to join negotiations.
Those are the renunciation of violence and the recognition of Israel
and of past agreements with the Jewish state.
Direct peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians have
been frozen since September 2010. The Palestinians have demanded that
Israel halt settlement construction in the occupied West Bank. Israel
rejects any conditions for talks to settle the Middle East conflict.
AFP |