Haniyeh says maintaining Palestinian people's rights (archives)
Photo: AFP
Haniyeh says won't impede deal for Palestinian state
Speaking at Khan Younis mosque, Hamas' prime minister in Gaza says 'we won't serve as an obstacle to the establishment of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, but we won't concede what is left of the Palestinian land'
The Hamas
government's prime minister in the Gaza Strip says his movement will not impede a peace deal which will lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.
"We will temporarily accept the principle of gradualness in terms of the liberation," he said, "and will not serve as an obstacle to the establishment of a Palestinian state within the '67 border, but this does not mean that we are conceding what is left of the Palestinian land and the next generations' right to return to their land."
Speaking at a Khan Younis mosque as part of the Friday sermon, Ismail Haniyeh said that the condition for not torpedoing such a deal would be a sovereign state with Jerusalem as its capital, which would be founded on all the lands occupied in 1967.
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According to Haniyeh, "Six million Palestinians driven away from their homes have the right to return to them. We won't accept half solutions based on settling the refugees in the countries they currently reside in, or any other compromise based on what is referred to as a just solution for the refugee problem. Our permanent stand is maintaining the rights of the Palestinian people."
Earlier this week, senior Fatah member Rafik al-Natsheh said that the group would not be recognizing Israel.
'We will maintain the resistance option in all its forms and we will not recognize Israel," he said. "Not only don't we demand that anyone recognize Israel; we don't recognize Israel ourselves. However, the Palestinian Authority government is required to do it, or else it will not be able to serve the Palestinian people."
