KHARTOUM — Exiled Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal hailed the sweeping political changes in Egypt, which he said had given the Palestinian people their lives back, in a speech in Khartoum on Sunday.
"Today we are witnessing Cairo returning to its natural state, after it disappeared from that state for a long time," the Palestinian Islamist leader said in a speech broadcast live on Sudanese state television.
"Today we are witnessing Cairo returning to its natural state, after it disappeared from that state for a long time," the Palestinian Islamist leader said in a speech broadcast live on Sudanese state television.
"The people in Egypt and Tunisia have given us back our lives," he added.Meshaal was speaking at the opening of the eighth Al-Quds (Jerusalem) International Foundation conference, being held in the Sudanese capital this year and funded by Iran.
Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, in 1979, and president Hosni Mubarak, who came to power two years later after his predecessor was assassinated by Islamists, was overthrown last month after weeks of nationwide protests.
The toppling of Mubarak was celebrated across the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, which neighbour Egypt had blockaded since 2007 when the Islamists seized power and ousted the secular Fatah movement of president Mahmud Abbas whose writ is now limited to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Hamas, which won parliamentary elections a year earlier, has refused to amend its charter, which calls for the destruction of Israel.
On Sunday, Meshaal called for reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah based on "jihad", or struggle, against the Jewish state.
"The first step (to liberating Jerusalem from Israeli occupation) is refusal to negotiate with Israel... and to establish a new, reconciled Palestinian position based on jihad," he said.
Under Mubarak, Egypt played an active part in trying to revive moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and also sought vainly to reconcile the feuding Palestinian factions.
The Palestinian Authority abandoned direct peace talks with Israel last autumn over an intractable dispute about persistent Jewish settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.
The status of Jerusalem was another key sticking point in the negotiations, with the Palestinians wanting the mostly Arab part of the city now annexed by Israel as the capital of their future state.
Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir reiterated his country's support for the Palestinian people in their "battle" for Jerusalem.
"What is going in the region is a prelude to the battle for Jerusalem. And we are committed to supporting the (Palestinian) people of Jerusalem in their jihad," he told the conference in Khartoum, adding that Egypt's 1979 peace accord with Israel had been a blow to the Arabs.
Egypt's newly-ruling military has vowed to abide by the agreement.
Mishaal calls for establishment of new Palestinian situation
[ 06/03/2011 - 08:23 PM ]
KHARTOUM, (PIC)-- Hamas politburo member Khalid Mishaal has said the time has come to ”establish a new Palestinian situation”, and added that Hamas wants reconciliation that upholds resistance and has a leadership on the path of Jihad.
The statements came Sunday during the eighth annual conference of the International Quds Foundation hosted by Sudan, including Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, Mishaal and other high-profile politicians from Palestine and the Arab world.
They discussed how to counter the threat of Judaization posed against Jerusalem and challenges faced by the Palestinians under the Israeli occupation.
Mishaal blamed part of the Jerusalem crisis on the Palestinian split and called for national reconciliation based on armed resistance of the Israeli occupation and not repeatedly failed negotiations.
”The time has come to change the reality and turn the page of the past,” Mishaal said. ”No one is entitled to abuse even a handspan of Palestinian land. There must be no negotiations with the enemy, and no coordination and conspiracy against our national rights and constants.”
”The time has come to establish a new Palestinian situation. After that we ask the world to stand with us. Based on this, the split will end, and national reconciliation will be realized. We want reconciliation that upholds resistance, and that the leadership leads its people on the path of Jihad.”
”Jerusalem is living under difficult circumstances in light of the Zionist occupation, and [is living] in a painful chapter and an attempt to change its religious landmarks and its image known to the world with the construction of phony synagogues, and attempts to invent its history, erase its identity with its Muslim and Christian population, and change its demographic structure.”
The conference hosted in Sudan included several high-profile Arab officials. Media Director of the International Quds Foundation Hisham Yaqoub had announced that it would be attended by 28 countries.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
No comments:
Post a Comment