Hamas leader dismisses Arab peace initiative
Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal on Thursday emphatically rejected the recently repackaged Arab League peace initiative, warning that the plan would cause Palestinians harm.
The longstanding Arab plan was amended Monday to allow for “mutually agreed” land swaps in a future peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, after a meeting between Arab League officials and US Secretary of State John Kerry. The announcement was made by Qatar’s prime minister, Sheik Hamad Bin Jassem Al Thani, in Washington.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, a member of the the PA’s ruling Fatah party — Hamas’s rival — was quick to endorse the apparently softened Arab League stance on negotiations, saying that minor land swaps that would obviate the need to evacuate major Israeli settlement blocs were consistent with the PA’s position.
In an interview with Al Jazeera Thursday, the Qatar-based Mashaal rejected the idea of land swaps, and contended that the goal of the US-backed plan wasn’t to better the Palestinians’ lot but rather to help integrate Israel into the region.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-leader-dismisses-arab-peace-initiative/
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