By Nour Abu Aisha
GAZA CITY, Palestine
Hamas will never surrender its weapons arsenal, Moussa Abu Marzouk, a member of the group’s influential political bureau, has said.
Abu Marzouk made the assertion in a recent interview with Anadolu Agency in which the Hamas leader discussed an ongoing Egyptian-sponsored initiative aimed at achieving inter-Palestinian reconciliation after a decade-long political rift.
“Hamas’s arsenal is not up for discussion,” he said. “Not before, and not now.”
“The weapons of the resistance exist to protect the Palestinian people,” Abu Marzouk said. “It’s ridiculous to surrender your weapons while your land is still under occupation and your people are displaced.”
Boasting tens of thousands of trained fighters, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, constitutes a significant military force.
Some observers do not rule out the possibility that Hamas’s formidable arsenal may eventually lead to friction with rival Palestinian faction Fatah.
Led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah has renounced armed resistance against Israel and supports a moribund “peace process” that has yet to produce any breakthroughs.
Despite the deep ideological differences between the rival factions, Abu Marzouk said Hamas was keen to see current Palestinian reconciliation efforts succeed.
Recent weeks have seen mounting hope that the Egyptian-sponsored reconciliation process will lead to a viable Palestinian government of national unity.
On Monday, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah arrived in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip for a highly anticipated visit.
The watershed visit comes two weeks after Hamas disbanded an “administrative committee” tasked with coordinating state agencies in Gaza. Notably, dissolution of the committee had been a chief demand of the Fatah-led Palestinian government in Ramallah.
-US green light
According to Abu Marzouk, the U.S. administration appears to have lifted a previously imposed -- if unspoken -- “veto” on inter-Palestinian reconciliation.
Asked about the source of this information, he said: “We heard this both from our own sources and from Western diplomats with whom we have spoken.”
“We have also seen a number of U.S. press reports about a change in U.S. policy in this regard,” he added.
If these reports are true, Abu Marzouk said, Abbas will now have the leeway to take “bold steps towards Palestinian reconciliation that the U.S. had previously sought to impede”.
Regarding the reasons for the apparent change in U.S. policy, he said: “This still remains unclear.”
Within the same context, Abu Marzouk said Hamas still rejects the conditions laid down by the so-called Middle East Quartet (the U.S., Russia, the EU and the UN). Nor, he added, would it countenance the notion of formally recognizing Israel.
After sweeping 2006 Palestinian legislative polls, the Quartet had demanded that Hamas first recognize Israel before assuming any governing mandate.
Hamas refused and the Gaza Strip -- which the group wrested from Fatah in 2007 -- was slapped with a crippling Israeli/Egyptian blockade which still remains in effect today.
-Prisoner swap
Regarding a possible prisoner swap with Israel, Abu Marzouk said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked several Arab and international parties -- including Russia, Egypt, Turkey and Qatar -- to mediate an agreement.
“But Hamas won’t even discuss this issue before Israel releases Palestinians from an earlier prisoner exchange -- prisoners who have since been re-arrested by the occupation authorities,” he said.
In 2011, Hamas and Israel carried out an Egypt-backed prisoner exchange by which Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit -- captured by Hamas in 2006 -- was freed in return for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.
The Israeli authorities, however, have since re-arrested 60 of the Palestinians freed in that exchange.
Hamas has said earlier that any new talks with Israel would be conditioned on the immediate release of the 60 re-arrested Palestinians.
“Everyone knows this issue is high on Netanyahu’s agenda,” Abu Marzouk said. “Wherever he goes, he demands more pressure on Hamas; he has raised this issue with Qatar, Turkey, Egypt and Russia, among others.”
He added: “Netanyahu asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to intervene with Hamas to secure the release of Israeli soldiers captured in Gaza. A Hamas delegation recently heard this in Moscow.”
On Sept. 20, a high-level Hamas delegation arrived in Moscow for talks with Russian officials.
Russia continues to maintain formal relations with Hamas, which the U.S., the EU and Israel describe as a “terrorist” group.
