The former leader of the Hamas terror group says the Palestinians are actively working to thwart US President Donald Trump’s peace plan.
“We completely reject this deal and we are confident it will fail. But we will not wait for its failure, we will make it fail,” Khaled Mashaal tells Reuters.
Mashaal, who lives in Qatar, says “positive steps” have been taken on a united Palestinian response, without elaborating.
“God willing, it will cause this deal to fail,” he says.
Khaled Mashaal speaks in Doha, Qatar, August 28, 2014. (AP/Osama Faisal)
He also criticizes unidentified Arab states for expressing support for Trump’s peace efforts and not rejecting his proposal.
“No country, Arab, Muslim or international, has the right to accept something the Palestinians have rejected,” Mashaal says.
He calls for a “return to the traditional, Arab, Islamic position which holds onto Palestinian rights.”
Mashaal also says the timing of the plan’s release was tied to domestic politics in the US and Israel and boasts the Palestinians have sunk past peace initiatives.
“Our people have thwarted many poisonous deals and settlement plans that others have tried to impose on our people,” he says.
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