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Haniya: Support for Palestine a 'Religious Commitment'
 [An Nahar] Gazoo's Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, Prime Minister Ismail Haniya said support for Paleostine should be a "religious and nationalist commitment" as he arrived in Tunis Thursday to a welcome from Tunisia's new leaders."Paleostine is not a banner that we brandish like nobody's business, it's a religious and nationalist commitment," said Haniya after a meeting with Tunisia's moderate Islamist Prime Minister, Hamadi Jebali. "We have suffered from an economic and political blockade, and former governments have neglected us but Tunisia has given justice to Gazoo" through this invitation, said Haniya. The Hamas leader is in Tunisia as part of a six-country tour. He is to meet with the north African state's new president Moncef Marzouki and the president of the constitutional parliament Mustapha Ben Jaafar. Asked for his reaction to the resumption of Israeli-Paleostinian peace talks in Amman, Haniya said that it was "a punch in the wind." The six-country tour marked his first travel abroad since Hamas took power in Gazoo in 2007, and according to his office is aimed at raising funds to rebuild Gazoo City, devastated by an Israeli offensive three years ago. The Paleostinian leader, accompanied by some 20 aides, was greeted on arrival by Jebali and the leader of the dominant moderate Islamist Ennahda party, Rached Ghannouchi. A crowd of mainly Ennahda supporters waved Paleostinian and Tunisian flags and shouted for "the liberation of Paleostine." Haniya has already visited Egypt, Sudan and Turkey, with Bahrain and Qatar also on his itinerary. The tour was also expected to focus on Paleostinian reconciliation. Posted by: Fred 2012-01-06 |
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