GAZA CITY: Hamas leaders yesterday voiced skepticism over any change in America’s policy in the Middle East and an end to Washington’s hostility toward the Palestinian movement after yesterday’s US election.
Israel Radio quoted a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Fawzi Barhoum, as describing the choice between the Republican John McCain and his Democratic rival Barack Obama as one between two “awful options.”
Earlier yesterday, news reports quoted Khaled Meshaal, the exiled Hamas leader, as saying he was ready to hold talks with any elected US president.
“Hamas is ready for dialogue with any incoming US president .... Democrat Obama or Republican McCain,” Meshaal said.
“We are ready to deal with any presidential candidate, but we will always stick to our rights. We acknowledge that the United States is powerful, but we are more powerful in our territory.”
On Saturday, Hamas’ deposed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said the next US president should reverse the country’s current policy toward the Palestinians by lifting the embargo on the Gaza Strip and cutting back support for Israel.
Hamas, which seized the Gaza Strip more than a year ago after bloody fighting with its rival Fatah, is branded by Washington as a terrorist group.
Cairo talks
Rivalry between the two Palestinian groups has continued since then and Hamas yesterday threatened to boycott the reconciliation meetings in Cairo, if its members continue to be arrested in the West Bank. The Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority rules the West Bank.
Hamas has reservations on the Egyptian reconciliation plan aimed at healing rifts between the two groups.
Another Palestinian group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said yesterday that it would participate in the Cairo talks independently and not as part of a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) delegation.
Rabah Muhana, a senior PFLP leader, told reporters that there were difference on some points among the factions represented in the PLO
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