GAZA: Hamas yesterday rejected Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s call for Palestinian reconciliation.Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman of Hamas in Gaza, told reporters that Fayyad was implementing a US-Israeli agenda rather than Palestinian one.
He also described Fayyad as “the most dangerous man in the history of the Palestinian cause because of his US-backed ideas that he has tried to implement. Fayyad’s call is far away from any national proposal ... he is a part of the Israeli and American equation.”
Barhoum was reacting to Fayyad’s interview to a pan-Arab newspaper in which he has said that “the home must be reunited because this is the way to respond to the Israeli actions.”
Hamas does not recognize Fayyad’s government based in the West Bank city of Ramallah and formed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in June 2007 when Hamas ousted Abbas and seized Gaza. Hamas rules the Gaza Strip with a government headed by Ismail Haniyeh.
“Hamas is too great to listen to a man who destroyed the Palestinian cause. Hamas is a great Palestinian faction which once formed a unity government and led the Palestinian people, said Barhoum.
A Hamas delegation was due to leave for Yemen yesterday to discuss proposals for Palestinian reconciliation put forward by President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh’s initiative calls on Hamas to relinquish control of the Gaza Strip.
The delegation comprises Hamas’ politburo chief Khaled Meshaal, his deputy, Moussa Abu Marzouq, and a former Hamas interior minister, Said Siam.
Meanwhile, a senior leader of Fatah was killed yesterday near Al-Nussirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
Fatah accused Hamas members of killing Bassam Al-Anani, 40, the secretary general of the party. Hamas denied the claim.
