Blair will have no more mediation opportunities, claims Hamas

The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement has denied that there is any new role for the former Quartet envoy to the Middle East Tony Blair in mediating with the Israeli occupation regarding a prisoner swap, reported AlKhaleejonline.com yesterday.

“We have completely closed this file,” an anonymous spokesman for Hamas said in Gaza. “Reports about this in the Arabic and Israeli media are untrue.”

The spokesman accused the Israeli occupation of initiating “false and poisonous information” in order to “check the pulse of the resistance.” He stressed that Hamas is “vigilant” and would not “offer any free scraps of information in this regard.”

Regarding his movement’s refusal to give Blair another opportunity, the Hamas official explained that the movement had closed Blair’s file after his failure to achieve any progress. “He was clearly taking the side of the Israeli occupation at the expense of the Palestinian resistance and its conditions.”

Furthermore, the spokesman denied media claims that Blair had anything to do with the payment by Qatar of salaries for Palestinian Authority employees hired by Hamas in Gaza. “This payment came without any external mediation,” he insisted. “It was a present from the Qatari Emir.”

According to AlKhaleejonline.com, media reports quoted Western diplomats saying that the former British prime minister had returned to mediate between Hamas and Israel through Qatar.