>From correspondents in Jerusalem
24mar04
HAMAS founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, assassinated in an Israeli air strike, offered Israel a 30-year truce in 1997, the mediator who arranged Yassin's release from prison said today. Efraim Halevy, an ex-Mossad operative who was called in to resolve an Israel-Jordan crisis after a botched assassination attempt against a Hamas leader in Jordan in 1997, made the disclosure in an interview on Israel TV. Halevy was a confidante of Jordan's King Hussein, and he suggested releasing Yassin from Israeli prison as the price for freedom for six
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Until now, Yassin's maximum known offer was a 10-year truce. Yassin was killed yesterday in an Israeli helicopter missile strike. Yassin made the 30-year truce proposal while still in prison, Halevy said. Yassin "sent the idea to King Hussein, who transferred the message to Israel", he said. However, the proposal was not discussed by the Israeli government, and then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu may not have known about it [...] His office said today that such an offer by Yassin, if it was made, would have been "worthless", because "Yassin was involved in terrorism while in prison and encouraged terrorism in prison and outside".
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In an interview with The Associated Press shortly after he was released in 1997, Yassin offered Israel a 10-year truce if Israel would withdraw its troops and settlers from all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. However, Yassin made it clear that even then, Hamas would continue to pursue its goal of replacing Israel with an Islamic state. The 30-year offer also countered Yassin's often-stated belief that Israel would wither away by 2024. Halevy said if Yassin's 1997 proposal had been accepted, it might have changed the face of the Middle East. However, in the TV interview, Halevy did not state Yassin's conditions for such a long-term truce.
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