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Senior Hamas figure: Unity deal won’t change Hamas, relations with Iran remain

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GAZ61_PALESTINIANS-HAMAS-_1208_11 (1)Veteran senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zaharsaid in an interview said that the creation of a unity government with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction will not alter Hamas’ outlook or mode of operation. 

He said Hamas will never recognize Israel’s right to exist or put its terrorist army under Palestinian Authority (PA) control  It was announced last week that Fatah and Hamas will form a unity government within the coming weeks, prompting Israel to suspend peace talks with the PA, given that Hamas remains committed to Israel’s destruction.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has since then made it clear that Israel will not negotiate with a government backed by Hamas, unless the organisation repudiates violence and embraces peace.  Over the weekend, Abbas said the new government will “obey my policy,” and would “recognize Israel and reject violence and terrorism”.

However, in an interview with Reuters, al-Zahar disputed Abbas’ assertion, fuelling gun certainty over how the unity agreement will be implemented.  In the interview, Al-Zahar declared: “He (Abbas) says ‘this is my government’. But it is not his government. It is a government of national unity. He is marketing it in this way to minimize (international) pressure.”

Al-Zahar, who has at times been at odds with the Hamas leadership despite being at its forefront since the organisation’s inception, added that Abbas “is trying to overcome a great wave of pressure” by providing reassurances to the international community as he “is seeking a guarantee that US financial support will continue.”

Al-Zahar went on to describe current PA security cooperation with Israel as “shameful” before adding that Hamas will maintain its own security forces independent of PA authority.  He pledged that Hamas would maintain the organizational and military split.  “Nobody will touch the security sections in Gaza. No one will be able to touch one person from the military group. Nobody asked for that.”

The PA’s Western-trained forces have in the past co-operated with Israel in security matters in Judea and Samaria (West Bank).  After winning elections in Gaza in 2006, Hamas violently seized control of the area and physically forced out those loyal to Abbas a year later.  Regarding the power balance between the PA and Hamas, Zahar insisted that the unity deal was not a case of Abbas picking Hamas off the floor after Egypt banned the terrorist group, but rather because peace talks between the PA and Israel were at a dead end.

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“He is very weak,” Zahar said of Abbas, whose term in office expired five years ago.  The Hamas leader also noted on the change of relations with Iran after Hamas refused to help support Syrian President Bashar Assad in the ongoing Syrian bloodbath.  “We have a good relation (with Iran), but you know the impact of the Syrian problem is still a factor,” said Zahar, adding “the communication is not as it was”.

 

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