Exclusive: Hamas OfficialPredicts Third Intifada
Salah Bardawil, senior Hamas leader and member of parliament, in an exclusive interview with Abeer Ayyoub, warns that if President Barack Obama visits the al-Aqsa Mosque with Israeli security, "it will result in the biggest political disaster in the history of Palestinian-American relations."
The Palestinian Authority is “dragging its feet” on reconciliation due to US President Barack Obama’s scheduled visit in March, senior Hamas leader and Gaza parliamentarian Salah Bardawil told Al-Monitor in an exclusive interview. Bardawil touched on this along with the latest disputes between Hamas and Fatah and said that little progress is expected until after the Obama trip.
The Hamas leader warned that Obama’s visit to al-Aqsa Mosque — Islam’s third holiest site — if accompanied by Israeli security forces will have “catastrophic ramifications on the current political situation.” Bardawil predicted that a third intifada is on the horizon and gave his support to current protests against the Israeli occupation in the West Bank. He also spoke of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and relations with Iran, which he claimed have not soured despite the fallout with Syria.
