On Monday’s broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered,” NPR International Correspondent Aya Batrawy discussed her interview with Hamas leadership member Bassem Naim and stated that the group is shifting its position on being armed “due to pressure from Israel’s continued occupation of Gaza and from regional countries the group depends on.”
Batrawy said, “I think it’s important for us to say that Hamas is a group that sees itself as a political, ideologically Islamist resistance movement. And its leadership maintains that Palestinians, under international law, have a right to bear arms so long as there’s an Israeli occupation and no Palestinian state. And while they continue to insist this is their right, we’re now hearing a shift, and that is due to pressure from Israel’s continued occupation of Gaza and from regional countries the group depends on.”
She added that Naim said that “the group is willing not to use its weapons for five, seven, or even ten years.”
She then played audio of Naim saying, “During this time, we are ready to store it, to lay it down, with Palestinian guarantees, with regional guarantees, international guarantees, not to use it, as long as we are not attacked.”
She added that Naim “also says there has to be a political track, negotiations that end with an independent Palestinian state.”
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