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Mashaal to US: Give Us Advanced Missiles to Target Israeli Military Accurately

“I think that the United States of America should have direct dialogue with Hamas without mediators, because the United States is a major state, and it shouldn’t fear Israel” – Khaled Mashaal

Al-Manar TV – 29/05/2010

Hamas politburo Chief Khaled Mashaal spoke out on Friday against American support of Israel and said that the Hamas was not against the United States but rather against its bias in favor of Israel, and stated Israel as the main obstacle to peace in the Middle East.

“We don’t have a problem whatsoever with the United States, nor with the American interests,” Mashaal told U.S. broadcast journalist and acclaimed interviewer Charlie Rose. “America is a great state; it is a superpower and its right to keep its interests, but its interests shouldn’t be at the expense of others and the people of the region.”

“Israel is the obstacle in the face of peace in the region and the United States of America, morally and politically, has to deal with this reality and not put pressure on the Palestinian or the Arab side,” Mashaal argued.

Mashaal also criticized the U.S. for not holding direct talks with the Hamas and questioned whether U.S. special Mideast envoy George Mitchell could succeed in his mission to bring peace to the region without the resistance movement.

“I think that the United States of America should have direct dialogue with Hamas without mediators, because the United States is a major state, and it shouldn’t fear Israel, and it should have dialogue with all concerned parties in the region,” Mashaal said. “Why does he [George Mitchell] believe that he will succeed in the Palestinian issue without dialogue with Hamas?”

“Why did the American administration accept the Israeli election regardless of the results, it accepted [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, it accepted extremists like [Foreign minister Avigdor] Lieberman, to be the head of the diplomacy, and did not accept Hamas,” he added and called this a “double standard.”

Hamas was democratically elected into power in the Gaza strip in 2007. The Palestinian secular Fatah movement, headed by Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank, did not accept the religious party’s rule.

Mashaal told Rose that he condemned any violence against citizens all over the world, and stated that once the occupation of Arab land around the world ceased and Israel withdraw back to 1967 borders, so would the attacks.

“There is an outrage in the Arab world and the Muslim world about the Israeli crimes and the Israeli occupation, and about the American biased politics in favor of Israel and the American and European policies against the interests of the Arabs and in favor of Israel,” Mashaal said.

“The overall feeling in the Muslim world is that the Americans are supporting Israel,” he added. “If we are to really stop such operations we have to have a just solution for the cause of Palestine and to stop the occupation in Iraq and in Afghanistan.”

The Hamas leader urged the U.S. to provide his resistance movement with technologically advanced missiles “so we can use them very accurately against military targets and not civilians,” and denied that Hamas hides its rockets amongst civilians.

With regard to the captured Israeli occupation soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been held captive by Hamas since 2006, Mashaal shifted the blame for the standstill in the talks for his release onto “Netanyahu and his smaller government,” and the U.S.

“Unfortunately, the American administration had a negative influence in delaying the exchange agreement because it requested Netanyahu not to have the agreement in order not to make Hamas stronger and weaken Mahmoud Abbas,’ he said, quoting Noam Shalit, Gilad’s father.

May 30, 2010 - Posted by aletho | Wars for Israel