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Haniya to Carter: "We back Paleostate within 1967 borders"
The sacked Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya said on Tuesday his Hamas movement backed the establishment of a Palestinian state within the borders of the pre-June 5, 1967, Middle East war. "The envisaged state should have full sovereignty over the Palestinian territories and have Jerusalem as its capital," Haniya said in a joint press conference with visiting former US president Jimmy Carter here. The Hamas government, ruling in Gaza, works with other Paleofactions to maintain the fragile ceasefire with Israel pending the arrival at a longer-term settlement to the conflict, he pointed out. "The basic prerequisites of such settlement are; the reopening of Gaza crossings, and the prisoner swap," Haniya stressed. Carter has held talks with Hamas leaders on the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, he said noting that his government is pressing for a fair and humanitarian deal that can ensure Shalit's release in return for thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Carter voiced hope that the Paleofactions would be able to Carter, now on a Middle East tour, said he would offer a report on the outcome of the tour to US President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Obama's special Middle East envoy George Mitchell. During his stay in Gaza, he inspected the large-scale destruction inflicted on the enclave by the Israeli military offensive early this year. Carter noted that many of the weapons, used by the Israeli army to destroy civilian targets including factories, schools - notably the US school, and Hamas premises during the war on Gaza, were US-made. He voiced outcry about the horrible scenes of destruction and the heavy loss of innocent lives. Posted by: 2009-06-17 |
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