Rantisi denied saying Hamas has turned down an Egyptian truce proposal

Abdul Raheem Ali, IOL Staff

CAIRO, January 18 (IslamOnline) – Leaders of Palestinian resistance groups, including Hamas and Jihad, repudiated reports that Egypt had tabled a proposal on a one-year truce with the Israeli occupation forces.

In exclusive statements to IslamOnline Saturday, January 18, Abdelaziz Rantisi, a leading Hamas figure, belied media reports which quoted him as saying that Hamas turned down an Egyptian truce proposal.

Rantisi said he was simply answering a reporter’s question on whether Hamas would accept a one-year truce, asserting he was in no place to know what Egypt had proposed.

“Such a thing would only be known to the brothers engaged in the dialogue but we generally refuse, in principle, halting the resistance,” he stressed.

“Hamas would attend the Cairo-hosted inter-Palestinian dialogue with the aim of working out a unified resistance project on the Palestinian supreme objectives, namely, defeating the Israeli occupation and liberated our occupied territories,” Rantisis said.

For his part, Jihad spokesman Khaled el-Batsh said Egypt has not so far defined a clear working plan for the dialogue and left the issue for discussion between the Palestinian factions invited.

“We did not receive an official proposal from Egypt that includes the reported one-year truce with the Israelis,” he underlined.

“We will go to Cairo to reiterate our position, namely, that resistance is a legitimate right for the Palestinian people in defense of themselves against the incessant violations by Israeli occupation troops, el-Batsh said.

“There can be no talking about unilateral truce without the Israelis paying a price or else we would be surrendering to slaughter by Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon and his gang,” said the Jihad spokesman.

Ismail Hania, a member of Hamas political office, said the talked about Egyptian proposal was not confined to the issue of resistance.

“It only included several proposals related to resistance, the situation inside Palestine and the Iraqi crisis,” he added.

“The Cairo dialogue is a positive intervention by Egypt out of its keenness on protecting the Palestinian people and salvaging their cause,” said the Hamas official.

Cairo is relentlessly endeavoring to salvage the Palestinian Intifada and resistance from a pressing danger, Hawatma said

Hamas will participate in the Cairo dialogue with a high-level delegation with the mandate of meeting directly with the other factions and Egyptian officials to expound the group’s viewpoint with respect to consolidating Palestinian unity to push ahead with resistance, he added.

Naif Hawatma, Secretary General of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), denied any Egyptian paper or proposal on the envisaged inter-Palestinian dialogue.

“On the contrary, Egypt received from all Palestinian factions papers on their vision to find a way out of the impasse with the minimum political program they could approve,” he added.

Egypt is working hard to iron out common grounds between the Palestinian factions to safeguard Palestinian unity and bridge the gaps, Hawatma said.

Cairo is relentlessly endeavoring to salvage the Palestinian Intifada and resistance from a pressing danger, he said, stressing that Egypt had never asked any of the Palestinian factions to stop the resistance.

Well-informed Egyptian sources had denied media report that Cairo proposed a one-year truce between Palestinian resistance groups and Israel.

Speaking to IslamOnline, an official source stressed all Egyptian efforts are aiming to bridge the gaps between different viewpoints and unify Palestinian factions around one political program and a unified resistance strategy.

“Egypt would never impose on or ask (the Palestinian) resistance for a truce,” he averred.

Such decisions are left to the Palestinians to make according to their supreme interests, said the Egyptian official source.