Yesterday Hamas senior leader Osama Hamdan sat with me and my colleagues at Al Arabiya in the wake of unsuccessful talks with Fatah and the formation of a new Palestinian government to discuss Hamas' position on a range of issues, from the Egytpian-mediated talks with Fatah to its relations with Hezbollah and Iran to its role in Egypt.
Ayman Taha, a Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, was also present but didn't speak (though he yawned a few times!). Hamdan was quite polite, and he understands English though he preferred to speak in Arabic. At the end of the session he explained that he does not shake hands with women and means no offense by it. "Ma feesh mushkillah" I told him (no problem), since of course I am accustomed to this practice having lived in several Muslim countries. My colleagues found this funny, though, and one of them teased that he was going to put the handshake in the headline.
Hamas usually reaches out to Al Jazeera, as some perceive that Al Arabiya is not on its "side." But the fact is that Al Arabiya is a respected news station that is doing professional work in a region that until these two satellite stations came on the scene was dominated by ideological and state-owned media. So perhaps I was less surprised than some of my Arab friends that he came to talk to the so-called "CNN" of the Arab World.
We sat in the fourth floor conference room just outside the studio and near the new AlArabiya.net offices. We spoke for about 45 minutes, well, mainly he spoke.
He said progress had been made in the talks with rival Palestinian faction Fatah but only because of Hamas' compromises. Hamdan urged the peaceful co-existence of Jews and Arabs, but stressed it must be under Palestinian rule."There is a Jewish community that lived for centuries in Nablus and remains to this day unharmed and has not been expatriated,” he said.
You can read the article I wrote here for the full story.
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