Israel dismisses Hamas 'double-talk' on peace

The Palestinians’ incoming prime minister suggested Hamas could one day make peace with Israel, but undercut his statement by saying his militant group wouldn’t disarm or recognise Israel unless it recognised a Palestinian state within boundaries the Israelis reject.

Israel dismissed the comments as "double-talk".

Asked in an interview with CBS News if he could foresee a day when he would be invited to sign a peace agreement with Israel, Ismail Haniyeh replied, “Let’s hope so.”

But Hamas, which won Palestinian parliamentary elections in a landslide in January, has rebuffed Israel’s conditions for talks, namely, that the group disarm and recognise the Jewish state’s right to exist.

Haniyeh said Hamas wouldn’t meet those conditions for talks unless Israel “recognised a Palestinian state within the boundaries of Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem”.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev accused Hamas of spewing “double meanings, verbal gymnastics and word games” in the hope of softening the West’s image of the group as a terrorist organisation.