Mashaal rejects return to talks

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal tells Iranian TV that “resistance” is the only effective means to secure its demands from Israel, and rejects the option of returning to the negotiating table.

“The negotiations did not succeed because Israel did not want to give a positive answer to the reasonable requests of the Palestinians,” he says, according to a translation by Ynet.

“We know resistance is the only way to break free of the burden of the Zionist regime.”

The Qatar-based official also addresses the recent wave of executions of alleged Palestinian “collaborators” with Israel. He says Hamas has managed to “purify” the Palestinians of its “spies.”

Obtaining information on the Palestinians through its intelligence has always been “a strong point of the Zionist regime,” Mashaal adds.