Hamas will not leave Syria, says Meshaal

Reconciliation deal between Hamas and Fatah does not include recognition of Israel. The Islamic resistance movement will not leave Syria following the current popular uprisings, Hamas’ leader Khaled Meshaal told Echorouk in an interview.

• What happened so that the Palestinian reconciliation takes place overnight without a prior warning?
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• No doubt that the Arab revolutions had an impact on speeding up the reconciliation. The Palestinian people are bothered by the continuous rounds which came up with no reconciliation. The Palestinian people played a big role in the reconciliation.
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• What are the real reasons behind the success of this agreement?
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• The spirit of the movements is different from the previous times. Everyone suffered from the division experience. Everyone was dreaming of reconciliation including Hamas.
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• What the main reasons which speeded up the Palestinian reconciliation?
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• The Arab uprising and revolutions among people and the Zionist prime minister’s policy were among the main reasons behind the success of the reconciliation.
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• Events in Syria are developing. What is your position from them? Does Hamas plan to transfer its headquarters to another capital?
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• No doubt that Hamas is following the developments in sister Syria. The country stood by the Palestinian people’s resistance and their legitimate rights. What is happening in Syria is the Syrians’ domestic affairs. We respect Arab and Muslim people’s will and aspirations.
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• As for rumours about Hamas’ move from Damascus, they are baseless. We do not thing about leaving Syria.
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• Was a final form reached about the Rafah crossing point?
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• We will examine details about the Rafah crossing points with Egypt later. It will be opened amicably with the country. We want Egypt to recover domestically so that it will play a strong Arab role later.
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• To which extent detentions among Hamas’ executives in the West Bank can abort the reconciliation?
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• No doubt that detentions in the West Bank hindered the reconciliation deal. Yet, detentions are now in contradiction with the reconciliation spirit. Some are unhappy about the reconciliation. That is unacceptable and we will not accept errors.
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• Do you expect assassinations against the Palestinian leading personalities?
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• The Zionist occupation may do anything to perturb the Palestinian arena. Everything is expected from our enemy. Israel may try to hinder the reconciliation through provocations and detentions in the West Bank or assassinations in Gaza.
• Was there any agreement on your visit to the Gaza Strip following the reconciliation?
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• It is early to talk about that. Yet, I am keen on visiting Gaza on the right time.
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• Does the reconciliation deal include recognition of Israel?
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• The reconciliation did not include that. There are four signed agreements or political documents. All of them include political clauses agreed on by Fatah and Hamas. We do not want anyone to dictate our domestic policy. Why have Palestinians always to respect foreign conditions from European countries. Arab governments opened doors to such a foreign interference. Others dared to dictate conditions on us as if we are minors and we do not deserve democracy.
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• The Palestinians’ mistake is establishing an authority under occupation because authority must be free and has sovereignty. The priority is to free the land from occupation. Authority has become a hindrance against liberation due to security commitments. Hamas and Fatah do not have a magic wand to free people from occupation. Palestine needs now a national salvation with the participation of everyone.
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• Do you expect that Hamas would win the next elections or will the division experience have a negative impact on results?
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• Hamas is not afraid of ballots. It considers elections as stairs which were blown up though the 2006 elections results were not recognised.
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• But there is a tendency to postpone the elections due to the current situation.
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• The elections may be postponed as there is no safe atmosphere to hold honest elections.
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• What are the last developments about the Jalaad chalet deal?
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• There are Egyptian endeavours about this issue. Releasing the Israeli soldier depends on Israel’s position. The ball now is in the Israeli prime minister’s camp. The obstacle is the Israeli position which is responsible for the delay in releasing Chalit.
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• Big efforts in negotiations about the exchange issue have stopped. In the last few months, there were complementary efforts which made some progress but they have not reached the requests we determined.