Hamdan: a prisoner swap deal not possible without meeting resistance demands

[ 22/11/2009 - 10:05 PM ]

BEIRUT, (PIC)-- Osama Hamdan who is in charge of the foreign relations in the Hamas Movement said Sunday that his Movement was and still is concerned to achieve a prisoner swap deal with the Zionist occupation if it meets the humanitarian demands of the Palestinian resistance. Although he refused to disclose the steps that the German and Egyptian mediators had achieved in this regard, Hamdan opined that the process might take more times due to the Israeli stubbornness. “We are sincere in concluding the deal, but it seems that matters couldn’t be completely achieved 100% unless the Israeli premier submits to the conditions put forward by captors of Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit… we are not talking about results on the ground, but one thing I can say that we are keen on concluding this issue based on the objectives we put since the first day Shalit was captured,” underlined Hamdan in press release he issued Sunday. However, he categorically rejected any link between the swap deal and the Palestinian factions agreement not to fire rockets on the Zionist entity, explaining that the agreement was made in order to give more attention to the PA government’s program to rebuild homes, government, and private institutions in the Gaza Strip destroyed during the 23-day Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip last December/ January. Nevertheless, Hamdan underscored that the understanding to halt missile attacks from Gaza Strip shouldn’t be understood as a cancellation of the Palestinian right to resist the occupation if it attacks Gaza. As far as the Palestinian national reconciliation is concerned , Hamdan explained that Hamas was and still is keen to make the Egyptian efforts succeed, adding, “Everyone knows that it was Hamas that revived the reconciliation file last September after it was almost buried last June after foreign parties interfered in the issue. He stressed, “national reconciliation could only be achieved through harmony and not through coercion…. we have some reservations on the modified Egyptian paper for the reconciliation, and we urged the Egyptians to review those remarks and we told them that we were amenable to discuss the modified paper”, Hamdan emphasized.