Hamas says it will not attend new cease-fire talks with Israel
CBSN
A Hamas representative in Lebanon confirmed to CBS News that a delegation from the militant group will not attend Thursday's attempt to restart cease-fire negotiations with Israel, saying Hamas has not received assurances that Israel would commit to negotiate on the basis of an earlier proposal dated July 2.
"We are not against the concept of negotiations and we were flexible in the previous rounds," said Ahmad Abdul Hadi, Hamas' representative in Lebanon, in a statement to CBS News Tuesday. "But Netanyahu and his government rejected (the July 2nd proposal), put new conditions, they assassinated the head of our movement," referring to the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas' political wing, in the Iranian capital of Tehran late last month. Haniyeh had been Hamas' lead negotiator in the cease-fire talks.
"Therefore we won't participate" in the Aug. 15 talks, Abdul Hadi added, "and we will go back to square one."
