Posted on 11/28/2003 8:16:07 AM PST by knighthawk
Hamas spiritual leader Shaykh Ahmad Yasin has indicated Hamas has no plans to discuss prospects for a new truce with Israel at the upcoming inter-Palestinian talks in Cairo despite the fact that Egypt has put the issue on the agenda.
"The Egyptian brothers presented us with the dialogue's agenda including the truce and we have not responded to them," Yasin said in an interview published by the Abu Dhabi newspaper Al-Ittihad.
"We refuse to speak of a new truce. We will not grant Israel a truce unless the mediators secure guarantees and pledges from the Israeli side and unless Israel makes a specific obligation to meet the Palestinian terms of the truce which will differ from the terms of the first truce," he said.
In respect of Hamas's participation in the Cairo talks to be held in a week's time, Yasin added:
"The movement has two options: either be represented by our brothers on the outside or by a delegation which brings together members from the outside and the inside in which case our brothers the Egyptian mediators will have to make arrangements."
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