Meshaal says Hamas will never recognize Israel
Khaled Meshaal, the top leader of Hamas which won last week's Palestinian parliamentary election by a landslide, made the offer to Israel via a column titled "To whom it may concern", published in the al-Hayat al-Jadida newspaper.
"We will never recognize the legitimacy of the Zionist state that was established on our land," Meshaal, the head of the political and military wings of the Islamic group, wrote in the column.
The United States and European Union have demanded that Hamas renounce violence, disarm and change its charter calling for the destruction of the Jewish state or risk losing foreign aid to a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.
Hamas leaders have stood firm in their refusal to buckle to pressure.
They have said they might heed a truce with Israel as an interim measure that could include the establishment of a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank, but would not recognize Israel.
"If you (Israel) are willing to accept the principle of a long-term truce then we will be ready to negotiate with you over the conditions of such a truce," Meshaal wrote.
Hamas officials say Meshaal is the group's supreme laeder. There are other leaders who oversee political operations in Gaza and the West Bank but answer to Meshaal.
Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, said Hamas's conditions for a long-term truce included an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank as well as its release of all Palestinian prisoners.
The United States has suspended the start of new projects in the Palestinian territories after Hamas's election victory, but expects some U.S. aid to flow in the future regardless of whether Hamas leads the Palestinian Authority government.
Jacob Walles, the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem, said in an interview with Reuters that Washington is concerned Hamas might turn to Iran for funding.
"We're proceeding with (U.S. aid) activities that are under way, but we're not starting new activities. We don't want to get into a situation where we may start something and not be able to finish it," Walles said. Meshaal dismissed the international pressure, saying in his column: "Our message to the United States and Europe is the attempts you are exerting to make us abandon our principles and struggle will be wasted and will not achieve any results."
Hamas must recognize Israel, Mubarak says
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in an interview published on Friday that Hamas must recognize Israel if it wants to set up the next Palestinian government.
Mubarak urged Israel to be "patient" as Hamas decides how to proceed.
"I am sure they (Hamas leaders) have no intention of setting up a government of terror," Mubarak told the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. "If Hamas wants to set up a government, then Hamas must recognize Israel," Mubarak said.
"But nothing will work if it does not recognize Israel."
After talks earlier this week between Mubarak and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a senior Egyptian official said Abbas would not ask Hamas to form a government unless it recognizes Israel and meets other conditions.
But a senior Palestinian official quickly denied that recognizing Israel was one of Abbas's conditions.
Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman had said Abbas was also demanding that Hamas stop violence and accept agreements which the Palestinians have signed with Israel.
Egypt is expected to be a prominent intermediary as Abbas and Hamas try to form a new government while averting the danger of foreign donors cutting off aid.