DAMASCUS (PIC)– Sami Khater of the Hamas Political Bureau said on Monday that there were no contacts between his movement and Israel adding that media reports in this regard were unfounded.
In a statement to PIC Khater said: “What has been what has lately been circulated in the Zionist media and its satellite media about an inclination of the movement to open channels of talks with the Zionist occupation is false and aims to create a state of confusion amongst resistance factions.”
He added that Hamas’s position with regard to having no negotiations with the Zionist occupier has not changed as “previous [Palestinian] experiences confirm the futility of negotiations with the Zionist occupation [as] this enemy does not deal with any political manoeuvre except if such a manoeuvre guarantees it more settlement and expansion and gives it cover to continue with its aggression against our people in the West Bank and the Gaza strip.”
He added that there was nothing new about what is often said about the movement being open to a truce with the Zionist occupation; “This vision is based on Zionist withdrawal from 1967 occupied territories the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital return of refugees to their land and homes removal of all settlements in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem and the release of all Palestinian captives.”
He also said that a truce based on the above mentioned conditions was not something new and that it was actually announced by its founder Sheikh Ahmad Yassin before his martyrdom.
Asked about Arab and European mediations to reach a “tahde’a” or lull in the fighting between the resistance factions and the Israeli occupation Khater said that the movements contacts with Arab and European states is not something new as Hamas is open to having good relations with everyone adding that the issue of “tahde’a” was not suggested by any Arab or International party and that it does not make sense to talk about a lull while in the light of the escalating Israeli aggression.
“How could we talk about a “tahde’a” while we see a Zionist escalation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This terror which is practised by the occupation government [..] which has resulted in the death of tens of our people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in [the past] few days” he said adding “it is our right an our duty to retaliate to terrorist attacks by the Zionist occupation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.”
