Hamas is interested in opening a dialogue with the Obama administration because its policies are much better than those of former US president George W. Bush, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said on Sunday.
He denied reports about progress in negotiations for the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit.
Mashaal also denied that Hamas was seeking to impose strict Islamic rule in the Gaza Strip, saying religion should not be enforced through coercion.
The Damascus-based leader’s remarks came in an interview with the Qatari newspaper Al-Watan and were published a day after Hamas foiled an attempt by a more radical Islamist group to establish an Islamic emirate in the Gaza Strip.
At least 28 Palestinians were killed and more than 120 were wounded in clashes that erupted between Hamas security forces and the Jund Ansar Allah group in Rafah.
The group’s leader, Sheikh Abdel Latif Mousa, died when he and one of his bodyguards blew themselves up during attempts to persuade them to surrender.
“We’re not courting anyone, but we are dealing with matters with openness and realism,” Mashaal said when asked whether his recent statements about accepting a Palestinian state alongside Israel marked a shift in Hamas’s policy.
“We have no problem dealing with any party in the world expect for the Zionist occupier. As for the US or any other country in the west or east, we are prepared to conduct dialogue with them because we are owners of a just cause.”
He praised President Barack Obama for using a different language than his predecessor.
“As long as there’s a new language, we welcome it,” Mashaal said. “But we want to see not only a change of language, but also a change of policies on the ground. We have said that we are prepared to cooperate with the US or any other international party that would enable the Palestinians to get rid of occupation.”
Mashaal stressed, however, that his statements did not mean that Hamas would accept the demands of the Quartet to recognize Israel, renounce violence and honoring all previous agreements reached between Palestinians and Israelis.
Mashaal strongly denied that his organization was trying to impose Shari’a in the Gaza Strip. Hamas, he said, was a national liberation movement whose main priority was to “liberate the homeland and restore Palestinian rights.”
Hamas did not have a policy of “imposing religion on anyone, because faith should come through persuasion, not coercion.”
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Khaled Mashaal: Hamas can speak with Obama
