(Media Line) Yaniv Berman - Mahmoud A-Zahhar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, said last week in an interview: * Q: If Israel withdraws from all the areas occupied after 1967, will this be the end of the resistance? A-Z: First of all we already agreed with the Palestinian factions on this plan. On the basis of this plan we can establish a state, after which we would engage in a long hudna (calm agreement), which would last for years. * Q: What is the final goal of Hamas? A-Z: If you ask any Palestinian or Muslim, wherever he lives - in America or in Britain or in Indonesia - he would tell you that according to the religious point of view, this land is part of the Arab and Muslim nations. This means that there is no other option but to reunify this land once again. * Q: What is 'this land' that you are talking about? Are you talking about the whole of Israel? A-Z: First of all this Palestinian land, and all the Arabic nation, is all part of the same area. In the past, there was no independent Palestinian state; there was no independent Jordanian state; and so on. There were regions called Iraq or Egypt, but they were all part of one country....Our main goal is to establish a great Islamic state, be it pan-Arabic or pan-Islamic.
2005-09-26 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive