Ma'an News Agency (Palestine) : "Mash'al: Arab states must not rush to normalize Israel ties"

Mash'al: Arab states must not rush to normalize Israel ties

Published yesterday (updated) 06/09/2009 17:21

Mash'al (L) speaks during a prior visit to Cairo
alsongside Amr Moussa (R) [MaanImages]

Bethlehem – Ma’an/Agencies – Senior Hamas leader Khalid Mash'al on Sunday warned Arab states to be wary of Israel's proposal to temporarily slow settlement construction in exchange for normalization of ties, describing it as a "dangerous equation."

"There is an Israeli effort to avoid the American demands, Mash'al said, referring to US call for a total settlement freeze. "We warn against any Arab rush toward normalization."

Speaking during a news conference in Cairo on Sunday, Mash'al said he welcomed the Obama administration’s calls for a settlement freeze, but said he awaited concrete US measures in the peace process

The Hamas political chief was referring to reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to demand a normalization of relations with Arab states in exchange for a partial freeze on illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Mash'al, who lives in exile in Damascus, Syria, was speaking alongside Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa after the two held meetings on the internal Palestinian conflict and the larger Arab-Israeli confrontation.

Hamas-Fatah talks to resume in October

Speaking on the internal Palestinian political division, Mash'al said that Hamas and Egypt agreed to proceed with talks with Fatah movement, but said the group would not accept new elections before a deal is reached.

He said Egypt is to submit a proposal regarding a potential deal to Hamas and Fatah, which will be the basis for negotiations in early October.

Mash’al said his “two days of talks in Cairo with the chief of Egyptian Intelligence services, Omar Suleiman and the Secretary-General of the Arab League focused on two main topics: Palestinian reconciliation and the Arab-Israeli conflict.”

Regarding elections, he said, “We found a clear Egyptian understanding of the necessity to go forward with the option of reconciliation, and to proceed with elections afterward when the reconciliation is stable.”

“Presidential and legislative elections cannot be held before a reconciliation agreement is reached,” he said. “We warned against the risk of holding any arrangement within the PLO to hold elections apart from an agreement [isolating] the issue in the West Bank and leaving out Gaza.”

“We are about to take steps toward reconciliation and Hamas is serious in reaching an agreement,” he said.

Mash’al blamed Fatah for the lack of an agreement. “During my previous visit [to Cairo] we had agreed on the files of conciliation, then an obstruction took place, but not from Hamas.”

In response to a journalist’s question about one of the main obstacles in the Hamas-Fatah talks he said, “There are one thousand political prisoners in the Palestinian Authority jails in the West Bank.”

Hamas and Fatah last held talks in Egypt in July. Several rounds of negotiations have failed to close the rift that opened up when Hamas, the winner of the 2006 elections, seized control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in June 2007.

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