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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."
Hamas official Salah al-Bardawil talks during a news conference in Cairo January 14, 2009. The Palestinian movement Hamas said on Wednesday it had given Egypt its views on an Egyptian ceasefire plan for Gaza and that it was now up to Cairo to present those views to Israel. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih   (EGYPT) - RTR23E4D
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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.

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