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Mashaal: U.S. hindered PA unity
Hamas politburo chief tells reporters in Yemen ‘American pressure on Fatah, other Palestinian factions prevented formation of Palestinian national unity government so Israel may maintain aggressive policy towards Palestinian nation’
Ali Waked
A day after Hamas presented its new cabinet in Gaza, the organization’s politburo chief Khaled Mashaal said
Monday that American pressure on Fatah and other Palestinian factions prevented the formation of a Palestinian national unity government.
Speaking to reporters in Sanaa, Yemen, Mashaal said that in pressuring the factions not to join a Hamas-led government the U.S. aimed to keep Hamas isolated, thus assisting Israel in ‘maintaining its aggression toward the Palestinian people.’
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However, he added, despite the fact that the factions refrained from joining the new government, the entire Palestinian nation will support it.
Mashaal said the new government is comprised not only of Hamas members but of experts and professional as well and will work towards improving the domestic situation and focus on reforms while upholding Palestinian principles.
“We hoped the other organizations and Fatah would be a part of the regime, just as we were part of the resistance, but they chose not to join the government and it is their prerogative,” he said.
The Hamas leader added that among the major challenges facing the new government is dealing with the dire economic situation in the PA and with economic pressures applied by Israel via the freezing of USD 650 million in aid, alongside the American and European threats that they would not support a Hamas government that does not recognize Israel and the Oslo Accords.
The Hamas government, according to Mashaal, supports a political plan that will be accepted by the international community.
“We have only two options – either surrender to the international community’s conditions and losing ourselves, our land and our dignity, or remaining patient, stand our ground and seek God’s help until salvation comes,” he said, adding that Arab countries have promised aid to Hamas.
“We are waiting for these promises to be converted into actual numbers in the upcoming Arab summit in Sudan.”
‘Hamas headed towards dead end’
Ahmed Abdel Rahman, an advisor to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and spokesperson for Fatah’s central committee, said recently that “the government presented to Abbas constitutes a sever and dangerous political revolution, as it refuses to recognize the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian nation.”
He said Hamas also refused to recognize the Palestinian Authority’s basic law and the international decisions made on the Palestinian issue.
“This is the reason Hamas was unsuccessful in reaching a common political denominator with all the factions; it is a result of the organization’s mistaken, stubborn and peculiar stances, which will increase the isolation of Hamas and of the Palestinian issue,” he said.
“Hamas may gain the parliament’s trust, but not the trust of the national majority. Hamas is headed towards a dead end,” added Rahman.
The Palestinians are bracing for period of ongoing political and parliamentary struggles; Fatah hopes these struggles, coupled with Hamas’ inability to withstand the pressures applied by the Palestinian people and the international community, which is funding the PA, will lead to the collapse of the Hamas government as soon as possible.
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