DOHA: Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal said the de facto recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state won by his rival Mahmoud Abbas should be seen alongside Gaza’s latest conflict with Israel as a single, bold strategy that could empower all Palestinians.
Meshaal said the short war which claimed 162 Palestinian lives and five Israelis was concluded on terms set by his Islamist movement and ended its isolation, creating a new mood conducive to reconciliation with Abbas’s nationalist Fatah.
In an interview with Reuters here, he compared Israel’s mood of dejection with the jubilation of Palestinians in Gaza and across the Israeli-occupied West Bank led by Abbas, insisting that “for the first time a ceasefire was achieved on conditions set by Hamas, and in the presence of the Americans”.
Diplomatically, this puts the stateless Palestinians on a par with the Holy See, but politically it would help “unify Palestinian national efforts” as part of the reconciliation process with Abbas’s nationalist Fatah movement, Meshaal said.
“I told Abou Mazen (Abbas) we want this move to be part of a national Palestinian strategy” that includes “the (armed) resistance which excelled in Gaza and gave an example of the ability of the Palestinian people to resist and steadfastly confront the occupier”, a confident Meshaal said.
“I am optimistic”, Meshaal said, “there is a new mood that allows us to achieve reconciliation”. “When we reconcile, unite and end the divisions and have one political marja’eya (the Islamic word for leadership) and one political system, then we will be stronger and better and we can achieve more, and our response to the Israeli aggression in all its forms will be better,” Meshaal said. Reuters
