Haniyeh pushes 1967 borders proposal

CAIRO—Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday set the tone for his first foreign tour since taking office by promoting a Palestinian initiative based on an independent state on land outside Israel’s 1967 borders.
After talks with Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, Haniyeh told a news conference it was time governments in the Middle East and around the world put pressure on Israel to recognize such an independent Palestinian state.
Haniyeh is from the Islamist movement Hamas, which has traditionally advocated a single Palestinian state in all of Palestine as it existed before the creation of Israel in 1948. Some analysts see a gradual and cautious evolution in the position of Hamas, which took office this year after winning a majority in parliamentary elections in January. But Haniyeh sidestepped a question on whether a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders — Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem — would mark a temporary or a permanent solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “Before we talk about permanent or temporary we are talking about a Palestinian political vision based at this stage on setting up a state in the 1967 borders,” he said.—Agencies