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Palestinian Arabs

Hamas will talk to anyone, except Israel

Top leaders say Israel is enemy, not partner


By Ryan Jones
February 27, 2006

The Hamas Authority is ready to join the international community by entering into talks with any and all foreign bodies, except one - the "Zionist enemy" with whom the Palestinian Arabs are purportedly involved in a peace process.

Speaking to the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat Monday, overall Hamas leader Khaled Mashal said his group was even prepared to forge relations with the United State of America, also known throughout the Muslim world as "the Great Satan."

However, cooperation with Israel - or "the Little Satan" - was out of the question, as Hamas and its Islamic allies in the region have made clear they see the elimination of the Jewish state as the first step and current phase in their march towards world domination.

Top Gaza-based Hamas leaders Mahmoud al-Zahar and Saed Siyam reiterated that point in a meeting with Jordanian and other visiting Arab lawmakers in Amman Sunday.

Speaking to the Associated Press, Zahar said:

"We don't consider the Israeli enemy a partner. By winning the elections, we defeated Israel."

Zahar said this position was supported by the wider Muslim world, with Sayim pointing to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's failed attempt last week to convince Egypt and Saudi Arabia to cut aid to Hamas until it changed its stripes as evidence.

"Rice's visit was provocative, but we found that the Arab position was so firm that she wasn't able to change their views."

In an interview published Saturday in The Washington Post, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh sought to add context to the blunt statements of his more brash colleagues, stating that his government would hold contacts with Israel, but only to hammer out a ceasefire and only after Jerusalem bowed to all current Arab demands.

Further clarifying, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri followed Haniyeh by indicating that ceasefire would end the moment the Muslim world was ready to move to the next phase of its "solution" for Israel.

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