Mahmoud al-Zahar, the foreign minister in the deposed Palestinian government, said he welcomed any contact with any country, including the new US administration, as long as it served the Palestinian Cause. In an exclusive interview to Al-Masry Al-Youm on the sidelines of a familiar visit to him in Ismailia early yesterday morning, he said he did not know the content of the letter for President Obama that US Democratic Representative John Kerry had received during his recent visit to Palestine. Al-Zahar said he was satisfied with the role played by the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Fatah. He also praised Mubarak for refusing Olmert's condition to sign a truce agreement only if Israeli prisoner soldier Gilad Shalit were given back to Israel. He said Hamas would give away Shalit – whom he described as a very important winning card in Hamas' hands – only after receiving from Israel 450 Palestinian prisoners being held there, including Fatah Secretary Marwan al-Barghouthi and Palestine Liberation Front secretary Ahmad Sadaat. "We will give him back to Israel only after we have checked that each one of our prisoners is OK" al-Zahar went on to say. Al-Zahar said efforts were being made to form a coalition government with Fatah under Egypt's auspices. He said this was a first step to unify the Palestinian ranks in coordination with the rest of the factions. He denied Hamas being a tool for regional forces or countries to carry out their political agendas, in an implicit reference to the movement's relation with Iran. He also stressed that the relations between the movement and Iran are good like the ones with other countries which try to serve the Palestinian Cause. He pointed out that Israel had not won or made any gains through its aggression on Gaza. Instead, he said the aggression had put an end to the legend of the aggrieved Israel and the lies about the Holocaust. "The Gaza war has shown Israel's real nature as the main terrorist country in the world, as it perpetrates the most vicious crimes against harmless people by using white phosphor" he said.
