SYRIA: Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal offers his thoughts on captured Israeli soldier and new Obama administration

Record ID: 279684

  • Title: SYRIA: Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal offers his thoughts on captured Israeli soldier and new Obama administration
  • Date: 21st April 2009
  • Summary: YARMOUK CAMP, SYRIA (APRIL 20, 2009) (REUTERS) HAMAS LEADER KHALED MESHAAL, OPENING AN EXHIBITION BY CUTTING GREEN RIBBON AT ENTRANCE CLOSER VIEW OF MESHAAL MESHAAL DURING HIS SPEECH (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) KHALED MESHAAL, HAMAS LEADER, SAYING: "There is one price that any Zionist Prime Minister should pay, which is the release of our prisoners, in order to release Shalit an
  • Embargoed: 6th May 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVACMFLJV3Z3E9DGOG7RVAK9U551
  • Story Text: Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said on Monday (April 20) that only a release of Palestinians held in Israeli jails could secure the return of Israeli prisoner Gilad Shalit.

    "There is one price that any Zionist Prime Minister should pay, which is the release of our prisoners, in order to release Shalit and make him return back to his family," said Meshaal, during the opening of a photography exhibition in al-Yarmouk camp, near Damascus.
    Meshaal also said that the administration of new U.S. president Barack Obama did not have the time for the Arab-Israeli conflict.

    "Obama's administration does not have the time for the Arab-Israeli conflict. But this issue is the last thing in his (Obama) priorities. If there is not an American interest in the Arab-Israeli conflict then we, Palestinians and Arabs, should not wait for stones to be cooked. We want a real dialogue," Meshaal said, adding that there was no hope for future negotiations with the new Israeli government.

    "There is no future for negotiations and agreements in Netanyahu-Lieberman's government because the basics of the agreement - even in the American and European concept - are not available in this government," he said.
    Meshaal did not comment on the latest report by Human Rights Watch saying that Hamas security forces killed at least 32 Palestinian political rivals and suspected collaborators with Israel during and after the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.
    Hamas, which won a Palestinian parliamentary election in 2006, wrested control of the Gaza Strip from Fatah forces in 2007.
    Each side has accused the other of human rights abuses.
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