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GAZA, Feb 3 (Reuters): Hamas will never recognise Israel's right to exist but will negotiate conditions for a long-term truce with the Jewish state, senior Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal told a Palestinian newspaper in comments published Friday.
"We will never recognise the legitimacy of the Zionist state that was established on our land," Meshaal wrote in a column in the Palestinian al-Hayat al-Jadida newspaper.
Meshaal, who is based in Damascus, heads the political and military wings of the militant Islamic group Hamas, which won last week's Palestinian parliamentary election by a landslide and appears set to form the next Palestinian government.
Hamas, which spearheaded a suicide bombing campaign that has killed hundreds of Israelis over the past decade, has long said it might heed a truce with Israel as an interim measure but would not abandon its long-term goal of destroying the Jewish state.
Meanwhile, the United States has suspended new projects in the Palestinian territories after Hamas's election victory, but expects some US aid to flow in future regardless of the militant group's government role, a top US official said.
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