Hamas official denies role in drawing up truce plan with Israel
25/12/2006 17:24
A Palestinian official from the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) denied
yesterday any role for him or the Hamas-led government in drawing up a plan for
truce with Israel. Ahmed Yousef, political advisor of Prime Minister Ismail
Haneya of Hamas, made the denial two days after an Israeli daily published a
draft plan for temporary solution between Hamas and the Jewish state and said
the document was made by Yousef and European politicians. Yousef told a news
conference in Gaza that the articles that appeared in the document were not of
Hamas or the Palestinian government, adding "it was absolute European
drafting." The plan is based on five-year truce between Israel and the
Palestinians. Palestinian analysts considered it as indirect recognition of
Israel by Hamas Islamists who had rejected international demands to recognize
Israel's right of existence. "The truce doesn't mean the recognition of
Israel," said Yousef, adding that it was a political offer in exchange for
ending the Israeli occupation of the 1967 territories, releasing all prisoners
and reinforcing the right of return. The Hamas official reiterated that his
movement accepts long- term truce only when the Palestinian statehood is
established.
xinhua
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