Hamas: Abbas’s statements do not represent the Palestinian people’s positions

Hamas: Abbas’s statements do not represent the Palestinian people’s positions

The Hamas Movement strongly denounced the statements of PA chief Mahmoud Abbas during the Arab summit in Damascus on Saturday, saying such statements do not represent the Palestinian people”s position which rejects the continuance in the settlement project with Israel.


In a press statement received by the PIC, Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, A Hamas spokesman in Gaza, also stated that Abbas”s statements on the Sana”a declaration was a formal denial of the Yemeni initiative.


Dr. Abu Zuhri underlined that Abbas”s position towards the Yemeni initiative represents a return to the language of preconditions and an attempt to ignore the initiative”s requirements which bind him to sit at the table of dialog, considering this denial a response to the external dictates and the Israeli threats.


He refuted the allegations made by the PA chief during his speech that he provides salaries for 77 percent of the civil servants in Gaza, saying that such claims are false because Abbas had severed the salaries of tens of thousands of Palestinian employees in Gaza.


Abu Zuhri called for sending an Arab fact-finding committee to investigate the size of the PA chief”s involvement in the Israeli siege either through severing salaries or through exercising pressures to prevent the opening of Gaza crossings.


Haneyya government: Abbas”s speech disappointing


For its part, the PA caretaker government of premier Ismail Haneyya expressed disappointment at Abbas”s speech, saying that it hoped the address would attempt to unite Palestinians and to keep aloof from “partisan wrangling and political opportunism”.


Taher Al-Nunu, the government”s spokesman, delivered a statement on behalf of the government on Saturday saying that Abbas”s speech was full of fallacies and contradicted the spirit of Sana”a declaration.


He also warned of attempts to circumvent the Palestinian refugees” right of return, noting that Ababs spoke of “agreed upon solutions” to that right. “We affirm that the only acceptable solution to the Palestinian people is the return to the homeland from which they (the refugees) were forcibly displaced in 1948 or expelled during the 1967 war,” he explained.


Nunu also appreciated the Sudanese position that offered to host the Palestinian refugees stranded at the Iraqi-Syrian borders.