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Hamas chief: We will not accept Israeli conditions

By: Barbara Surk, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

16/01/2009 9:30 AM | Comments: 0

DOHA, Qatar - Hamas' political chief has rejected Israeli conditions for a Gaza ceasefire and demanded an immediate opening of the besieged territory's borders.

Khaled Mashaal's tough line came Friday as he asked a summit of Arab countries to back him by cutting off any ties with Israel. Despite Mashaal's hard-line comments, Israel and Egyptian mediators are expressing optimism a ceasefire can be reached.

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Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev says he is hopeful Israel is "entering the endgame" on its Gaza offensive and that a "sustained and durable" stop to Hamas rocket fire on southern Israel is near.

A top Israeli envoy, Amos Gilad, is in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials for a second straight day on a cease-fire proposal put forward by Egypt. An Egyptian security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, says "signs are encouraging for a breakthrough" in negotiations for a truce.

The impact of Mashaal's comments was not immediately clear, but they could muddle the diplomatic efforts for a halt in the now three-week-old Israeli offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The Damascus-based Hamas leader was speaking at an Arab summit in the Qatari capital of Doha that pro-U.S. Egypt and Saudi Arabia boycotted, fearing Hamas would use it to bolster a hard-line stance and undermine the negotiations.

There have been some signs of cracks within Hamas over the cease-fire talks. Hamas officials in Gaza have often appeared more prepared to accept Egyptian proposals than Mashaal's leadership-in-exile.

Under the Egyptian proposal, fighting would stop immediately for 10 days, but Israeli forces would remain in place in Gaza and the border crossings into the territory would remain closed, until security arrangements are made for the crossings to ensure Hamas does not smuggle weapons into the territory. Israel demands a halt to Hamas rocket attacks into southern Israel and internationally backed guarantees that Hamas will not rearm by smuggling weapons into the tiny Mediterranean strip, which it has controlled since 2007.

But in Doha, Mashaal insisted Hamas cannot stop fighting until the border crossings into Gaza are opened.

"We will not accept Israel's conditions for a ceasefire," Mashaal told the summit. He said Hamas demands that "the aggression stop," Israeli troops withdraw and crossings into Gaza open immediately.

He asked Arab nations to back Hamas' position and to announce a boycott of Israel and the cutting of any ties they have with the Jewish state.

Mashaal lay down Hamas' view of the conflict, trying to fend off suggestions from Egypt and Saudi Arabia that its rocket attacks were to blame for sparking the Israeli assault, in which more than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza medical officials. Israel says it launched its Gaza offensive because of continued Hamas rocket fire against southern cities.

Mashaal insisted Israel was to blame because of the crippling blockade it imposed on the tiny Mediterranean coastal strip since Hamas took power there in 2007. He said Hamas refused to renew a six-month-old truce with Israel that ran out in December because the period of relative calm had not led to an end to the closure

Israel says the closure is needed to prevent weapons from reaching Hamas, but it has also caused months of widespread shortages and suffering in Gaza.

"Did we do wrong, by rejecting a truce that let the blockade continue?" Mashaal said. "Don't the people of Gaza deserve to live free? ... They want to live free without blockade or occupation, just like all the Palestinian people do."

"Please listen to the voice of the resistance," he said. "Don't think that Hamas wants an open war. We are defending our people."

Speaking to the gathering, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Syria's Bashar Assad - both close allies of Hamas - echoed Mashaal's call for a severing of ties with Israel and a boycott. Egypt and Jordan, which did not attend, are the only Arab nations with diplomatic ties with Israel, but several Gulf states - including Qatar - have lower level economic ties with the Jewish state.

The surprise presence of the president of mainly Persian Iran at what was touted as an Arab summit underlined how the Gaza conflict has deepened the split in the Middle East between pro-U.S. governments and their rivals, particularly Hamas's allies Syria and Iran.

Like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Hamas' rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, boycotted the Qatar gathering, and around 10 other Arab leaders also stayed away, reportedly under pressure from Cairo and Riyadh.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia have instead suggested leaders discuss Gaza at a previously planned economic summit due to begin in Kuwait on Sunday. Arab foreign ministers met Friday in Kuwait to prepare for the gathering and discuss Gaza.

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