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Hamas
To Give Up Arms If Palestine Is Established: Yassin
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"When
we have an independent Palestinian state, we will be the first one
to lay down arms," Yassin
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GAZA
CITY, May 7 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The spiritual
leader of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin,
said Wednesday, May 7, his movement would be the first Palestinian
faction to lay down its arms if the Palestinian state was established.
"When
we have an independent Palestinian state, we will be the first one to
lay down arms, not before that," Yassin told the French Le
Monde newspaper.
"A
ceasefire will only follow an Israeli withdrawal from all the
Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 and if a Palestinian state is
established on the Gaza City and the West Bank with Al-Quds (occupied
Jerusalem) as its capital," said the founder of Hamas.
Hamas
activists will "pursue their battle against Israel and will never
give up their arms as long as Israel does not recognize the rights of
the Palestinians," he added.
Asked
whether or not there was a difference between new Palestinian Minister
Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat,
Yassin told Le Monde that there is "a big difference"
between both of them, arguing that the Israelis and the Americans
insisted on Abu Mazen.
He,
however, said Hamas does by no means accuse Abu Mazen of being an
"agent" to the Americans.
"It
is not in Hamas principles to accuse people of being agents (to the
Americans or the Israelis)," he said.
On
Abu Mazen's statements that Hamas should accept political solutions,
Yassin said this approach cannot be applied to "the occupied
Palestine" in view of the Israeli barbaric policy of demolishing
houses, arrests and daily massacres against the Palestinian people.
Yassin
also dismissed as "failure" the U.S.-backed Mideast roadmap
peace plan.
"It
only protects Israel's security and provides for re-grouping the
Palestinian factions as desired by the Israelis," he said.
"It
(the roadmap) envisions a Palestinian state by 2005, but this deadline
will be extended to 2010 and then to 2020," he said, criticizing
the Israeli procrastination.
On
the U.S. pressures on Syria to close the offices of the Palestinian
factions, Yassin said: "we got used to that…We used to live in
Jordan, then were deported to Qatar and finally to Syria. But we have
not received any confirmed information on the issue till the fourth of
May."
No
To Civil Conflict
The
veteran Palestinian leader also gave an assurance that Hamas would do
its best to avoid a confrontation with the new Palestinian government
of Abu Mazen.
In
an interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Tuesday, May 6, Yassin
said Hamas activists "who remember the tragic repressive
incidents of 1996, do not want to pay the price once again." He
was referring to the oppression of Palestinian fighters by the
Palestinian Authority in the wake of Oslo agreements.
Abu
Mazen's commitment,
however, to disarm Palestinian militants was "unacceptable",
he said. "We reject this call. Most of the Palestinians reject
it."
"We
have the choice between two solutions: to surrender or to fight on
until the end of occupation," he said.
"Our
arms are only locked on to the Israeli enemy," he told AFP.
On
the Israeli celebrations of the "birth of the Jewish state,"
Yassin said "They are now celebrating their victory against a
persecuted nation," said Sheikh Yassin.
"The
Palestinians will never accept the victory of Israel, because this is
not definitive…The final battle has not yet taken place. It's not
over. The power of Israel will not last forever," he vowed.
"The
day will come when the Palestinians will have the power and the battle
will then be over."
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