Report: Hamas' Mashaal agreed in Doha meeting with Abbas to Palestinian state within 1967 borders

In meeting last month with the emir of Qatar and Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas leader says it wants a full partnership with PA, according to protocol leaked to Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar.

By YASSER OKBI/ MAARIV HASHAVUA
Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal holds a press conference in the Qatari capital Doha on July 23, rejecting a cease-fire in the Gaza battles. (photo credit: AFP)
Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal holds a press conference in the Qatari capital Doha on July 23, rejecting a cease-fire in the Gaza battles.
(photo credit: AFP)
Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal expressed his agreement to the founding of a Palestinian state within the 1967 Green Line in a meeting with the emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The Hezbollah-affiliated newspaper Al-Akhbar published what it said was the protocol of the meeting. 
The meeting took place last month in Doha during Israel's Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. Abbas and the emir invited Mashaal to join their meeting to discuss ways to end the fighting between Israel and Hamas, Palestinian sources said.
"We want a full partnership with the Palestinian Authority, and in addition we agree to the creation of a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders," Mashaal was quoted as saying. 
"The people of the Gaza Strip do not only want to reach a cease-fire, they also want a comprehensive deal in which the blockade is lifted, the border crossings are open, and the strip is rehabilitated," the leader was quoted as saying in the meeting.
Mashaal emphasized that resolution of these issues was in Abbas's hands who has access to the European Union and Egyptian officials.
Earlier this week the paper published other sections of the protocol of the meeting
In the first published sections, Abbas is reported to have complained to the emir about Hamas’s attempt to stage a coup against his regime in the West Bank.
The protocol quotes Abbas as telling the emir that Hamas has been working to foil and bring down the PA ever since its establishment.
“[Former PLO leader Yasser] Arafat invited them [Hamas] to join the Palestinian Authority and the 1996 elections, but they refused and said that democracy is forbidden because it is the rule of the people, while we Hamas want the rule of Shari’a,” Abbas was quoted as saying. “They issue fatwas as they like and use religion to serve their interests.”

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Abbas said – according to the protocol – that each time he meets with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz the latter tells him that Mashaal is a “liar.”
The protocol also quotes Abbas as accusing Hamas of being behind the abduction and murder of the three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank last June in order to “strike at the Palestinian national project.”
Khaled Abu Toameh contributed to this report.


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