Top Hamas negotiator quits prisoner-swap talks with Israel: report
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Berlin, Feb 27, IRNA -- A leading Hamas official announced his resignation from his post as the chief negotiator in the prisoner-swap talks with Israel, the Hamburg-based weekly news magazine Der Spiegel reported Saturday.
"I am no longer available as a mediator," Mahmoud al-Zahar was quoted saying.
Hamas has accused Israel of wasting time and creating excuses to obstruct the agreement.
German-brokered talks between Israel and Palestine's resistance movement Hamas on a prisoner exchange deal have been on the verge of a collapse, according to Der Spiegel.
The prisoner swap deal which is being mediated by Germany's foreign secret service BND, is geared at freeing a captive Israeli soldier in exchange for the release of some 1,000 Palestinians still languishing in Israeli jails.
Germany's image as a neutral mediator in the Arab-Israeli conflict would also be damaged, if negotiations reach a dead-end.
Hamas has repeatedly criticized that German negotiators were not neutral but in fact were more inclined to side with the Jewish state.
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End News / IRNA / News Code 983899
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