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Photo: AP
Abbas. Wants Shalit
Photo: AP
Photo: Reuters
Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal
Photo: Reuters
Photo: Noam Rotem
Kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit
Photo: Noam Rotem

Abbas to Hamas: Give me Shalit

In al-Sharq al-Awsat interview, Palestinian president says he demanded group hand over kidnapped soldier in exchange for establishment of unity government. Hamas politburo chief: IDF's ongoing operations aimed at covering up failure in Lebanon

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the London-based Arab-language newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat Tuesday that he demanded Hamas transfer kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit to him so that he could be the one running negotiations with Israel.

 

“I conditioned the establishment of a new government with the release of the captive soldier,” he said.

 

Meanwhile, London based newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi quoted Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal Tuesday morning as saying that although talks between Hamas and Egypt surrounding a deal to exchange prisoners with Israel continue, Israel isn’t serious – it takes one step forward and several steps back.

 

Abbas believed he could reach a better deal with Israel, “I told them, give me the captive and I will run negotiations with Israelis regarding our prisoners. They are prepared to give me more prisoners.”

 

“Secondly, ministers and parliament members will be released, and thirdly, there will be a calm that would rid us of the stupid missiles launched for no reason and with no gain,” he continued.

 

Abbas recounted talks with Israel regarding the release of Shalit and said, “We spoke of mutual calm, and this was the first time there was and intended mutual calm. In the past we reached a mutual calm between ourselves, the Palestinians. But this time it was a mutual calm agreed to by the Israelis.”

 

He pointed out that Israel seriously intended to release prisoners even before Shalit was kidnapped leading up to a meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and said the number of prisoners rose following Shalit’s kidnapping.

 

Mashaal: Israel trying to thwart PA unity gov't

In contrast, Mashaal gave a television interview Monday that would be aired Tuesday on al-Hiwar, and said that Israel agreed in principle to a prisoner exchange deal, but that it was trying to make the execution of the deal difficult by objecting to the release of one prisoner or another.

 

Mashaal added that he had no problem visiting Egypt, but said that reports which said he was expected to visit Cairo were not true. He emphasized that his movement’s relationships with Arab countries where good, but denied having recently visited Qatar in an attempt to solve the issue of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.

 

According to him, he only visited Qatar following an invitation Sheik Hamed Ben Khalifa al-Tani, crown prince of Qatar.

 

Mashaal also addressed the current Palestinian Authority crisis and the latest IDF operation in the Gaza Strip and said that the Israeli government was the one to blame for the escalation of violence in the PA.

 

He claimed that IDF operations continued in order to cover up the failure of Olmert’s government and to damage efforts in establishing a unified Palestinian government.

 

Mashaal added that the Hamas government was one of “institutions whose leadership is in Damascus and those interested in communicating with is should do so openly”.

 

Mashaal also commented on the crisis that broke out between his movement and Jordan after the country accused Hamas activists of smuggling weapons into the kingdom with the intention of committing terrorist acts. He said he hoped Hamas’ relationship with Jordan would be restored.

 

He even expressed grief over “allegations which the Jordanian court made” against three Hamas activists in the issue of weapon smuggling. “The movement isn’t hostile towards Jordan, but it has a right and duty to supply besieged Palestinians,” Mashaal concluded.

 


פרסום ראשון: 11.07.06, 11:02
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