Hamas leader rejects Gaza arms halt

Gaza's ruling Hamas will not stop arming itself because only a strong arsenal, not negotiations, can extract concessions from Israel, the No. 2 in the Islamist group Moussa Abu Marzouk said Saturday. The comments by Abu Marzouk, just three days after the worst bout of Israel-Hamas fighting in four years, signaled trouble ahead for Egyptian-brokered talks between the hostile neighbors on a new border deal, ABC News reported. Hamas demands that Israel lift all restrictions on the movement of goods and people in and out of the Palestinian territory, which has been buckling under a border blockade since Hamas seized the territory in 2007. The restrictions have been eased somewhat in recent years, but not enough to allow Gaza's battered economy to develop. Abu Marzouk said Saturday that the group would not disarm, arguing that recent Palestinian history has shown that negotiations with Israel lead nowhere unless backed by force. "There is no way to relinquish weapons," Abu Marzouk said in his office on the outskirts of Cairo. "These weapons protected us and there is no way to stop obtaining and manufacturing them." During the latest round of fighting, Hamas fired Iranian-made Fajr-5 rockets that came close to Israel's heartland, including Tel Aviv for the first time. Israel warplanes pounded the tunnel area during the offensive to disrupt smuggling, and tunnel operators reported serious damage, but in the past were able to rebuild quickly. Hamas used to be evasive about Iranian weapons support, but in recent days senior officials in the group have openly thanked Tehran. Gaza strongman Mahmoud Zahar told reporters on Saturday that he is confident that Iran will increase military and financial support to Hamas and the smaller armed group Islamic Jihad. Zahar said Saturday that Hamas is not beholden to anyone, but defended the group's ties with Iran. "If they don't like it, let them compete with Iran in giving us weapons and money," he said. Abu Marzouk, meanwhile, said Hamas would not stand in the way of a bid by its main political rival, internationally backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, to seek UN recognition for a state of Palestine next week. Abbas will ask the UN General Assembly to approve "Palestine" - made up of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in 1967 - as a non-member observer state. Such a state is far from being established, but Palestinians hope UN recognition would affirm its future borders, to be used as a baseline once negotiations with Israel resume. Israel refuses with withdraw to the 1967 lines and opposes Abbas' UN move as an attempt to bypass negotiations. Israel has moved half a million Israelis into settlements on war-won land. Abu Marzouk suggested that Abbas is wasting his time at the UN. "Hamas believes the General Assembly is not the one to create states," he said. "Occupation needs resistance, not negotiations." Overall, Hamas leaders have claimed the group has emerged victorious from this round, noting that Israel did not make good on threats to send ground troops into Gaza. Israel says it has achieved its goal of halting rocket fire on Israel. Abu Marzouk said the next round of indirect talks will take place in Cairo on Monday. He has not met his Israeli interlocutors, he said, but said they are security officials and experts on border arrangements. Until late last year, most top Hamas leaders in exile were based in Syria, the Islamists' main foreign backer in addition to Iran. However, Syrian President Bashar Assad's brutal crackdown on a popular uprising there made Hamas' alliance with the Damascus regime untenable. Abu Marzouk, who has settled in a quiet Cairo suburb, said the follow-up talks with Israel were going well so far.