Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday to stop seeking compromise with Israel but offered him an olive branch, saying Palestinians must unite. Meshaal said Hamas "stretches its hand" to Abbas' Fatah faction to end their divisions.
"Courage dictates that we, as leaders of the Palestinians, be frank with our people and evaluate what compromise has brought us, decide together to suspend or freeze the political settlement process and pursue our real national options," Meshaal told a rally in the Syrian capital.
According to Reuters, he said compromise with Israel had failed to stop Israeli settlement expansion and brought Palestinians no closer to establishing an independent state. "Any leader who insists on the right of return for the Palestinian refugees and on restoring the land, even to the 1967 borders ... must know that the way to do this is not through negotiations or betting on the Americans but through holy struggle, resistance and national unity," Meshaal said.
"Our hand is stretched out to reconcile with our brothers in Fatah and the Palestinian presidency to achieve our national project," he said.
© 2009 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
