Normalisation offers protection to the Israeli occupation and is aimed at fueling divisions in the Arab region and enforcing political and geographical realities for the future, head of Hamas Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh said on Monday evening.
Speaking at the seventh online political forum for Hamas, Haniyeh added that the United States through its foreign policy restructured alliances in the region according to its vision, forcing some parties to act as per such policy.
“We reject normalisation between any Arab country and the Israeli occupation,” Haniyeh explained, adding: “Hamas will not deviate its compass to get into a conflict with any Arab state even though we consider normalisation a political sin.”
“We don’t bet on successive US administrations, but we release that changes might be in favour of our cause,” he continued.
Analysing the developments of US foreign policy and how the Israeli occupation has been handling annexation plans and normalisation, Haniyeh demonstrated that Hamas is committed to setting up a multi-dimentional plan on the basis of unifying the Palestinians in the face of annexation, the deal of the century, and normalisation.
Haniyeh stressed that the US administration is attempting to divide the Arab region and build a security alliance in which the Israeli occupation enjoys military, security, and economic superiority.
The Israeli occupation challenges the Palestinians by continuing settlement expansion, moving ahead with annexation, targeting Jerusalem and Palestinian citizens of the 1948 occupied Palestinian territories, abolishing their right of return while maintaining a crippling siege on the Gaza Strip and demonising the Palestinian resistance, Haniyeh pointed out.
Haniyeh called for forming a full-fledged national strategy to restructure the Palestinian home and build a true national partnership at various levels through the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).
Determined to reactivate the PLO, Hamas is committed to holding elections simultaneously, he explained.
“We cannot face these schemes without a unifying Palestinian leadership,” Haniyeh said, adding: “Hamas contacted Palestinian leaders and I personally made calls with President [Mahmoud] Abbas; our message was clear: our cause is on the line.”
Oslo Accords is a catastrophe
Haniyeh noted that the Palestinian Authority bets on the new change in the White House, thinking that it would revive negotiations with the Israeli occupation.
The US administration will build its new foreign policy on three key factors: internal divisions, handling the Palestinian issue, and rebuilding the US reputation tarnished by Trump’s policy, as well as returning to international consensus on several matters, added Haniyeh.
The chief of Hamas Political Bureau called for betting on the Palestinian people and their unity and option of resistance.
“We agree to establish relations with all countries around the world except for the Israeli occupation. Other than that, Hamas is open to everyone and willing to establish relations that will protect Palestinian unity and national rights,” he pointed out.
Haniyeh noted that the Oslo Accords were a “catastrophe for the Palestinian people.”
“The Oslo deal cannot be the political basis of any future Palestinian understandings,” Haniyeh continued.
“The outcomes of the Oslo agreement on the ground constitute a political disaster; we have to build a new strategy irrelevant of this deal," counted Haniyeh.
Open policy
Haniyeh highlighted that Hamas has ties with Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Qatar, North African Arab countries, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan, noting that his movement seeks to restore ties that had been weakened with some countries.
“Hamas adopts a policy of openness to everyone and doesn’t intervene into the internal affairs of other counties or the Arab national security,” Haniyeh confirmed.
Haniyeh affirmed that his movement could not deny the Arab strategic role in the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli occupation.
He urged the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Saudi officials to release Palestinian captives from Saudi jails.
The Hamas chief welcomed the Gulf reconciliation, restructuring the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and lifting the blockade on Qatar, noting that any such move would eventually be in favour of the Palestinian cause.