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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan | |
| Meshaal rejects Israeli truce conditions | |
| 2009-01-29 | |
| A Hamas official said on Wednesday that it has rejected Israeli conditions for a tahadiyeh (cease-fire), which include freeing kidnapped St.-Sgt. Gilad Schalit. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told US Middle East envoy George Mitchell on Wednesday that while the Gaza crossings were open that day for humanitarian aid, their full, routine, permanent functioning would require a solution to the Schalit issue.
Salah el-Bardawil, a member of the Hamas delegation currently in Cairo, reiterated on Wednesday that it was not possible to link the truce to the release of Schalit, and said that if Israel wanted him it had to pay the appropriate price. "We said clearly that we have our vision and a list that we presented to Egypt, and the ball is in the Israeli court," Bardawil told Al-Jazeera from Cairo. "If they want to release Schalit, they have to pay a price in return... the 11,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails waiting to be released." Since the end of Operation Cast Lead, Hamas has refused to connect the Schalit issue with reopening the crossing points and reaching a truce. Hamas has restated this position with the Egyptians at every meeting, saying that Schalit's release depended on the release of a list of security prisoners it submitted to Ofer Dekel, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's former coordinator on the Schalit issue, some time ago. | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Meshaal just does as he's told ... |
| Posted by: Steve White 2009-01-29 11:59 |
| #1 Hey, why not? Not like they caught a lotta incoming up in Damascus. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2009-01-29 10:19 |