RAMALLAH, West Bank, 3 February 2008 — The Hamas Movement yesterday harshly criticized EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Mideast Quartet envoy Tony Blair saying that both officials “were leading a conspiracy to keep Rafah crossing (on the border between Gaza Strip and Egypt) closed.”

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that the two officials’ scheduled visit to the region this week to discuss reopening the crossing “is a new plot to keep the blockade on Gaza Strip.”

Abu Zuhri explained in a press statement that the visit aims at “cutting the road before Hamas’ attempts to reopen Rafah crossing with new arrangements bypassing the Israeli occupation’s intervention in monitoring the crossing.” Rafah crossing and other crossings between Gaza and Israel were closed in June when Hamas took over Gaza Strip by force from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ security forces.

Since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, Rafah crossing was working according to a US-brokered “Rafah agreement” that stipulates the presence of EU monitors as a third party on the terminal. Abu Zuhri said that Blair and Solana will also try to “gather international support for Abbas to reactivate the agreement and enabling the Israeli occupation to control the traffic in and out of the crossing.”

He questioned why the EU and the Quartet, comprising US, EU, Russia and the UN, does “not pressure (Israeli) occupation to reopen the other crossings.” Hamas didn’t want the deployment of the EU monitors in the same way as it was before since the agreement left a hand for Israel on the crossing throughout the monitors.

Hamas said that since the EU monitors live in Israel, the Israeli Army could close the crossing by preventing the monitors from traveling to the border. The deal said the crossing could not be run without the existence of the EU monitors.

Meanwhile, Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo said that the Palestinian Authority doesn’t insist on an international role in running Gaza crossings or oppose the proposal of reopening the crossings away from international presence. However, Abed Rabbo said the Palestinian leadership prefers to reopen Rafah crossing according to US-brokered deal.

Earlier, Blair told The Times newspaper in London that the international community needed to match Hamas’ “clever strategy” to secure a peace deal, in an interview published yesterday. The former British prime minister, who remains confident of striking a peace deal by 2009, said a situation must be engineered whereby there is everything to gain if Hamas stops its rocket attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip.

Blair said the United States was ramping up its involvement in trying to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians as US President George W. Bush’s term in office runs out.

“Hamas has a clever strategy, which is why I keep saying we need a clever strategy as well, which helps the people, isolates the extremists and points out the fact that if at any point in time the rockets stop, the whole situation will be transformed,” Blair said.

“This is a deal that could definitely be done, and it could definitely be done this year,” Blair said.