Thursday 25 June 2009

Mashaal: Netanyahu's Vision for Palestinian State Lame


Mashaal: Netanyahu's Vision for Palestinian State Lame


25/06/2009 Hamas Politburo Chief Khaled Mashaal rejected Thursday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's vision of a demilitarized Palestinian state, calling it "a lame solution, not a proper political entity."

Mashaal said the minimum his group would accept was establishment of an Arab state with its capital in occupied Jerusalem and full sovereignty in the areas liberated by Israel in 1967, dismantling of Jewish communities in those areas, and permission for return of the families of Arabs who left when the Zionist entity was founded in 1948.

Mashaal said that his organization would cooperate with all international efforts "to bring an end to the occupation." In a Damascus policy speech intended to respond to recent addresses by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and United States President Barack Obama, Mashaal said the West is responsible for Israeli "extremism and intransigence".

As for captured Israeli occupation soldier Gilad Shalit, Mashaal added that Netanyahu's only option to freeing him was "through a prisoner exchange deal." The Israeli "stubbornness," he said is the reason the deal has failed so far. "We will keep doing everything we can to see our prisoners released," he added.

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