May 7, 2011

CAIRO (Ma'an) -- Hamas will decide whether or not to use violence to resist Israel in consensus with Palestinian factions, the movement's leader told The Wall Street Journal.

"How to manage the resistance, what's the best way to achieve our goals, when to escalate and when to cease fire, now we have to agree on all those decisions as Palestinians," Hamas chief Khalid Mash'al told WSJ in an interview published Saturday.

Mash'al also said decisions on "negotiations with Israel, domestic governance, foreign affairs, domestic security and resistance and other field activities" would also be reached by agreement with Palestinian factions.

The Hamas chief defended his movement's right to armed resistance against Israel.

But presidential aide Nabil Sha'ath told the Journal that Mash'al had agreed to adopt a strategy of non-violent resistance in closed door meetings in Cairo, ahead of the signing of a reconciliation agreement between the Islamist movement and Fatah.

"He said 'we cannot do violence and you do nonviolence. It does not work out,'" Sha'ath said.

Hamas leaders have also spoken recently of a tacit acceptance of Israel. While the movement has indicated in the past that it would support a Palestinian state on 1967 borders, recent public statements give the position added gravitas.

On Thursday, Mash'al told AFP that the Islamist movement "agrees to the the establishment of a Palestinian state within 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital, without settlers and without giving up the right of return," he said.

He made a similar statement at Wednesday's signing ceremony.

Israel has rejected all dealings with a united Palestinian government unless it renounces violence and explicitly recognizes Israel as a Jewish state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been meeting European leaders in a bid to convince them not to support a unilateral declaration of statehood from the Palestinians and to oppose the unity deal for co-opting Hamas.