Mashaal offers 10-year cease-fire deal

Says he would accept '67 borders; Haniyeh: Palestine is Islamic territory.

mashaal 298 88 ap (photo credit: AP)
mashaal 298 88 ap
(photo credit: AP)
Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal has said he would be willing to set up a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders side-by-side with Israel. In an interview published Monday in the Italian newspaper Republica, Mashaal also offered Israel a 10-year cease-fire deal.
  • Mashaal: Armed struggle a strategy The exiled Hamas leader added that he was not prepared to recognize Israel, since to do so would grant legitimacy to the "occupation." Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, however, declared on Monday that "Palestine" was Islamic land and that no one had the right to give it up, according to Israel Radio. In a meeting with Iran's spiritual leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Haniyeh said that an armed struggle was the only way to free Palestine from the "occupation." Haniyeh made his statements at the end of a four-day visit to Iran, after which he was scheduled to visit Sudan.