Hamas: 'We were forced to do it'

The worldwide imperialist establishment and its media blame Hamas for staging a coup against the Palestinian unity government, a government dissolved and replaced by Fatah. To give our readers a more accurate picture, a statement from Hamas follows, excerpted from www.Manartv.com.lb (June 16).

“Hamas does not want to seize power,” said the group’s politburo chief Khaled Mershaal. “We are faithful to the Palestinian people.”

Mershaal added: “What has happened in Gaza is an emergency measure to deal with a state that wanted to impose itself on everybody ... we were forced to take this emergency measure. We did not want to take it but we were forced to do it. ... We want brotherhood with the sons of the Fatah movement. This was not a confrontation with Fatah. Our crisis is not with Fatah.”

“The people [of Gaza—JC] were suffering from chaos and lack of security and this treatment was needed,” Meshaal continued. “The lack of security drove the crisis toward explosion.”

“Abbas has legitimacy,” Meshal said. “There’s no one who would question or doubt that he is an elected president, and we will cooperate with him for the sake of national interest.”

Meshaal called upon Arab League foreign ministers meeting in Cairo to help mediate talks between Hamas and Abbas, to act “as an umbrella to hold the national Palestinian dialogue to approach a Palestinian accord.”

Meshaal said that a national unity government is the only solution, and that Abbas’ dissolution of the unity government “will not remedy the situation ... and will not solve the problem. There will be no two governments and no division of the homeland.”

Meanwhile Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said, “The appointment of Salam Fayyad as a head of the emergency government is a coup against [Hamas’] legitimacy ... We ask President Abbas to withdraw the decision in order to preserve the integrity of our people.”