Hamas' political chief has hailed US President Barack Obama's demand from Israel to freeze construction in the West Bank. Khaled Mashaal, speaking to the press in Cairo, said Obama's pressure on Israel was an essential step toward restarting peace efforts.
He also endorsed Obama's appeal to the international community to regard Hamas as a "positive element" within the framework of the Middle East peace drive.
Mashaal welcomed any real opportunity to reach a Palestinian reconciliation and to end the Israeli occupation. He said: “This will give our people the right of self determination” and to live in a sovereign state “without occupation” based on the 1967 borders.
Mashaal stressed that the main obstacle for Palestinian unity "is what is happening in the West Bank.” "What is happening in the West Bank to resistance is terrible and unacceptable," he added. In these comments he referred to the killing of several Hamas fighters in the West Bank city of Qalqilia by the Palestinian Authority security forces.
