GAZA, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Islamic Jihad ruled out on Wednesday joining a new Palestinian government following Hamas's election victory or forging any long-term truce with Israel.
"Islamic Jihad will not join the coming cabinet," Khaled al-Batsh, a leader of the militant group, told a news conference, voicing a position it had been widely expected to take.
"If the government will have an agenda of resistance, we will support it," he said, referring to attacks on Israelis.
Batsh said any long-term ceasefire with Israel would be useless and Islamic Jihad "rejects it completely".
In a BBC interview, Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal said Hamas "could possibly give a long-term truce" but only if Israel withdrew from the occupied West Bank, recognised a right of return for Palestinian refugees and dismantled all settlements.
Israel has rejected those conditions, first voiced by Ahmed Yassin, a Hamas leader it assassinated in 2004.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad are committed to Israel's destruction.
Hamas, which swept to victory in a Jan. 25 parliamentary election, has largely abided by a ceasefire Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared with Israel a year ago.
Islamic Jihad accepted the truce but later pronounced it dead, carrying out several suicide bombings in Israel it said were in retaliation for Israeli attacks.