Mashaal urges Fatah to hold unconditional talks, "Shalit will not be released unless our detainees are released"

Source: Al-Manar TV, 5-1-2008
Hamas politburo Chief Khaled Mashaal said Friday that "Israeli" occupation soldier Gilad Shalit, captured by Hamas-linked resistance groups raid in June 2006, will not be released without the freedom of Palestinians held in "Israeli" jails.
"The matter of the detainees bloodies our heart," Mashaal said, indicating that it was a painful topic, and added that Gilad Shalit will not be released "unless our detainees are released." He did not give further details. Mashaal also said that Hamas rejected a European offer for an indirect meeting with "Israel" to discuss a possible truce, adding that the Palestinian people have no choice other than resistance.
Speaking at a rally in Damascus marking Hamas' 20th anniversary, Mashaal also called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to hold unconditional talks with Hamas. "I urge my brothers in Fatah to solve the Palestinian crisis and restore national unity through unconditional dialogue," Mashaal said. "We can manage the conflict with "Israel" together, without dropping the option of resistance," he added. "Hamas is still strong and will continue its Jihad despite the attempts to weaken it," said Mashaal, acknowledging that the organization has made some mistakes in the past, but saying they were unavoidable, "as we are all human." Hamas' mistakes, said Mashaal, were a matter of details, not strategy.
On Monday, Abbas took a conciliatory tone toward his Hamas rivals in a major policy speech, calling for a new page in relations between the bitter enemies. Fatah and Hamas have been at odds since Hamas democratically won parliamentary elections in January 2006. Those differences boiled over into open warfare that peaked with Hamas' driving Fatah out of Gaza in June.
Mashaal said that Abbas' Palestinian Authority has made reconciliation talks conditional on a number of concessions from Hamas including an apology. "We are ready for a dialogue without conditions. Our hands are extended and all matters should be put on the table including elections," Mashaal said.
Mashaal said that a recent U.S.-sponsored Mideast conference in Annapolis, Maryland had not stopped the building of settlements in Palestinian territories nor improved the lives of Palestinians noting that 560 "Israeli" checkpoints are still in place. He added that this leaves his people with no choice but to fight. "Give our people another alternative. As long as the horizons are closed and there are no other alternatives then there is nothing our people can do other than resistance," he said.
He added that the Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad must go and "all (Palestinian) forces must prevent this government from gambling with the interests of the Palestinian people."
The rally was attended by Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Abdullah Shalah, as well as the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command Ahmed Jibril. Mashaal said that since Hamas was founded in the late 1980s, attacks against "Israel" have improved. "It (Hamas) added momentum to the resistance with its special operations whether martyrdom operations, its performance, steadfastness or rockets," Mashaal said referring to the "Israeli" army siege against Gaza and the Qassam rockets regularly fired at "Israeli" towns.
"Today, "Israel" declares that Gaza's primitive rockets are forming a balance of terror and they feared that they will reach Ashkelon. Yesterday, brother Ahmed Jibril inflamed (the situation) and made them reach Ashkelon," Mashaal said. He later added that it was not Jibril's PFLP-GC that fired the rocket but rather his students.