Hamas lawmaker warns of changing U.S. policy in region

A Hamas lawmaker on Monday said the U.S. administration was apparently changing its way in trying to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"Unfortunately, the U.S. vision is based on creating a Palestinian statehood without the basics of the Palestinian rights which are Jerusalem, refugees' return and the right of self-determination," said Mushier al-Massri, a Hamas lawmaker.

In the past, the main points of the U.S. policy in the Middle East were to resume the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians on several key issues that if resolved would enable the establishment of the Palestinian statehood alongside Israel, he said.

Al-Massri made his remarks as U.S. peace envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell arrived in the region. Mitchell said his mission aimed at resuming the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and freezing Jewish settlement in the West Bank in exchange for normalizing ties between Israel and Arab nations.

He is due to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his prime minister on Tuesday.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas lawmaker, said his movement feared that Mitchell's visit would be "a prelude for new Palestinian concessions to move the peace negotiation wheel."

"The essence of the Palestinian cause is to end the Israeli occupation, not only pushing the peace talks forward," Abu Zuhri told Xinhua.

Abu Zuhri warned the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and Abbas' Fatah movement that holds sway in the West Bank from dealing with Mitchell's mission.