Hamas urges wolrd to press Zionist regime

Hamas urges wolrd to press Zionist regime

Gaza City, Jan 27 - Chief candidate of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) called Thursday for the international community to put pressure on the Zionist regime to end its occupation of Palestinian land in his first public comments following the movement's shock election victory.

"The main problem is the Zionist occupation and continuing aggression against our people," Ismail Haniya told journalists outside his home in Gaza City.

"The first step is not for Hamas," he said when asked what the group's first step would be. "It's for the international community to put strong pressure on Israel to restore our rights and end all the occupation."

"The United States and the European Union must put pressure on the occupation and not on the Palestinian people. We want equality, security and freedom for all the Palestinian people, but this cannot come without the end of the occupation on our land."

"Hamas will work in two ways. The first way is resistance and self-defence, the second is national dialogue in the Palestinian territories... our fighting is only with the Zionist enemy," Haniya said.

"We will continue our dialogue with all brotherly factions in the Palestinian territories. "Outside pressure is always against the Palestinian people not against the occupation and America's position is the same," he said.