Will Israel Work with Hamas Towards and End to the Gaza Invasion?
Hamas ready to compromise if Israel swaps prisoners
July 5, 2006
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
DAMASCUS (Reuters) -Syria and Hamas have told mediators that the Islamic movement will show flexibility in a confrontation over a captured Israeli soldier if Israel accepts a prisoner swap, political sources said on Wednesday.
Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal also said at a meeting with a visiting Turkish official that Hamas was ready to resist an all-out Israeli attack on the Gaza strip but preferred a deal to end the crisis, the sources told Reuters.
"Meshaal said any solution must be based on a prisoner exchange. He did not say whether that exchange had to be simultaneous but indicated Hamas was flexible," a Palestinian politicians familiar with the meeting told Reuters.
Israel has already rejected any negotiations or prisoner swap.
Meshaal has not appeared in public since crisis began when the soldier was kidnapped on June 25 and this was the first indication he was still in Syria.
Ahmet Davudoglu, a senior adviser to the Turkish prime minister, met on Tuesday with President Bashar al-Assad and with Meshaal, who lives in Damascus along with several other high-level Hamas members.
Israel has threatened to kill Meshaal unless the soldier was freed. Israeli planes flew over a Syrian presidential palace last week in a warning to Assad to stop supporting Hamas.
Assad received a call from Saudi King Abdullah on Wednesday about the crisis, state media said.
The 40-year-old president, shaped by his late father's lifetime struggle with Israel, has resisted pressure from Arab rulers allied with the United States to pressure Hamas.
Syrian officials say Arab countries, such as Egypt, want Syria to lean on Hamas to help release the soldier without Israel freeing some of 10,000 Palestinian prisoners it holds.
Israel has turned down a deal that could initially involve releasing around 400 Palestinian women and youths from Israeli prisons in return for information about the soldier.
U.S. Secretary of State of Condoleezza Rice, who met with Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul on Wednesday, said it was "high time" for Hamas to release the soldier, who was captured in an operation involving Hamas' military wing on June 25.
A member in the ruling Baath Party said Washington and its Arab allies did not understand that Syria will not sell out Hamas, although Damascus's insistence on a swap is causing tension with Arab countries.
"It is naive to think Israel is destroying Gaza for the sake of its soldier. Syria is adamant that these attacks must stop. Only then we can talk about pressure on Hamas," he said.
"Hamas's exiled leadership is in close contact with Syria throughout this crisis. The stakes are high and Syria does not host Hamas for nothing."
Israel vowed on Wednesday to expand attacks on Gaza in response to a missile strike by Hamas on an Israeli city in which no one was hurt. Hamas said the strike was in revenge to the Israeli offensive on Gaza, which included civilian targets.
July 5, 2006
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
DAMASCUS (Reuters) -Syria and Hamas have told mediators that the Islamic movement will show flexibility in a confrontation over a captured Israeli soldier if Israel accepts a prisoner swap, political sources said on Wednesday.
Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal also said at a meeting with a visiting Turkish official that Hamas was ready to resist an all-out Israeli attack on the Gaza strip but preferred a deal to end the crisis, the sources told Reuters.
"Meshaal said any solution must be based on a prisoner exchange. He did not say whether that exchange had to be simultaneous but indicated Hamas was flexible," a Palestinian politicians familiar with the meeting told Reuters.
Israel has already rejected any negotiations or prisoner swap.
Meshaal has not appeared in public since crisis began when the soldier was kidnapped on June 25 and this was the first indication he was still in Syria.
Ahmet Davudoglu, a senior adviser to the Turkish prime minister, met on Tuesday with President Bashar al-Assad and with Meshaal, who lives in Damascus along with several other high-level Hamas members.
Israel has threatened to kill Meshaal unless the soldier was freed. Israeli planes flew over a Syrian presidential palace last week in a warning to Assad to stop supporting Hamas.
Assad received a call from Saudi King Abdullah on Wednesday about the crisis, state media said.
The 40-year-old president, shaped by his late father's lifetime struggle with Israel, has resisted pressure from Arab rulers allied with the United States to pressure Hamas.
Syrian officials say Arab countries, such as Egypt, want Syria to lean on Hamas to help release the soldier without Israel freeing some of 10,000 Palestinian prisoners it holds.
Israel has turned down a deal that could initially involve releasing around 400 Palestinian women and youths from Israeli prisons in return for information about the soldier.
U.S. Secretary of State of Condoleezza Rice, who met with Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul on Wednesday, said it was "high time" for Hamas to release the soldier, who was captured in an operation involving Hamas' military wing on June 25.
A member in the ruling Baath Party said Washington and its Arab allies did not understand that Syria will not sell out Hamas, although Damascus's insistence on a swap is causing tension with Arab countries.
"It is naive to think Israel is destroying Gaza for the sake of its soldier. Syria is adamant that these attacks must stop. Only then we can talk about pressure on Hamas," he said.
"Hamas's exiled leadership is in close contact with Syria throughout this crisis. The stakes are high and Syria does not host Hamas for nothing."
Israel vowed on Wednesday to expand attacks on Gaza in response to a missile strike by Hamas on an Israeli city in which no one was hurt. Hamas said the strike was in revenge to the Israeli offensive on Gaza, which included civilian targets.
posted by HRM Deborah of Israel and the Messenger of Peace at 6:39 AM
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