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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Mishal: talks may deal Palestinians fatal blow |
| 2010-08-26 |
| [Gulf Times] Hamas leader Khalid Mishal said yesterday that peace talks between Palestinians and Israel next week could deal a fatal blow to the Palestinian cause. Mishal said in a speech in Damascus that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was too weak to stand up to Israel and negotiate a just deal at the talks in Washington on September 2. "If the talks succeed they will succeed to Israeli standards and liquidate the Palestinian cause. They'll give us parts of 1967 lands. They'll draw the borders as they want and they'll confiscate our sovereignty," said Mishal, who lives in exile in Syria, along with several Palestinian leaders. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Abbas are set to meet with US President Barak Obama to restart direct talks after months of indirect negotiations. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah of Jordan have also been invited to the summit. Mishal, speaking at an Iftar, called on the two Arab leaders to turn down the invite. "I appeal to President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah II not to back these negotiations which are rejected by the Palestinians," he said. "The results of these negotiations will be catastrophic for the interests and the security of Jordan and Egypt," Mishal said. He insisted that the talks are only "the fruit of an agreement" between Obama and Netanyahu. Mishal said there was "no consensus on the negotiations" among the Palestinians and that Abbas was heading to the talks under duress from Washington. He called the talks a "farce," saying the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) had not given its approval. Abbas's negotiation strategy has long been condemned by the Hamas Islamist group which seized control of the Gaza Strip from him in 2007 and is deeply hostile to Israel. Hamas does not rule out peace talks with Israel if they realise what it considers Palestinian rights. Hamas has said it could live peacefully alongside Israel if Israel withdrew from all Palestinian land it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war. Hamas's 1988 founding charter, however, calls for the destruction of Israel and for restoration of all of British mandate Palestine. "Our grievance, in a nutshell, is occupation. Our project is resistance," said Mishal. Mishal asked Abbas and his Fatah faction to join Hamas in adopting a Palestinian strategy that does not drop diplomacy but concentrates on the "option on resistance and holding on to inalienable Palestinian rights." He said Palestinian negotiators were not legitimate. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Make Khalid move back to Gaza. You'd have peace next week. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2010-08-26 22:30 |
| #1 He said Palestinian negotiators were not legitimate. Obama: "then who is a legitimate Palestinian negotiator?" Meshaal: "Nobody. If they were legitimate, they wouldn't negotiate. They would kill the Jooos" Obama: "Hokay, well that's a starting point, a good one, thanks for giving some on that one. Mr. Netanyahu, what do you have to offer in exchange for this generous compromise?" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2010-08-26 19:31 |