In a statement, considered the first of its kind, Dr Ahmed Yousef, Hamas's top political official and the adviser to Gaza's Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, said that the group’s removal from the US and European countries’ lists of terrorism sponsors is no longer difficult nor impossible, but has become a matter of time.Palestine Press Agency adds:
Yousef declared to the Palestinian news agency Maan on Monday, that Hamas had made contacts with the help of Arab and Islamic countries such as Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, to convince major and European countries to take Hamas’s name out of the terrorism list.
He claimed that some Western countries have responded positively, without naming them.
Leader of the Hamas Ahmed Yousef said that there are moves in a European framework for the lifting his movement from the terrorism list,saying that Hamas has completely stopped from the practice of martyrdom operations targeting civilians, in the interest of Europe opening up to Hamas.Of course, Hamas itself bragged about targeting civilians during Pillar of Defense, the very definition of terrorism and noted in the UNHCR report on the fighting.
Yousef told Radio "Raya FM" that Hamas is only using arms in the land of Palestine, and international law gives them the right to resist the occupier as a national liberation movement.
Yousef explained that if Europe wants to be a party in any future political process, it must engage with Hamas and that there is a significant European understanding of it, pointing out that the Palestinian reconciliation could speed up its completion.
Meanwhile, Hamas honcho Mahmoud Zahar once again stated that Hamas' willingness to accept a state in the territories in no way mitigates its goal to utterly destroy Israel. It is just an interim step.