Abu Zuhri: Netanyahu is lying - Abbas should visit Gaza after gov’t formation, not before

[ 26/06/2011 - 05:55 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, A Hamas spokesman, said that Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement that he accepted the German mediator’s prisoner exchange offer and Hamas didn’t was a lie.

Abu Zuhri said in a terse statement on Sunday that Netanyahu was lying to cover up for his role in foiling the effort of the German mediator and blocking the exchange deal.

The spokesman told all parties concerned and to the captured soldier Gilad Shalit’s family that Netanyahu was the one responsible for aborting the exchange deal.

Netanyahu claimed during the Israeli weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday morning that his government accepted the German offer despite being “difficult” and that Hamas did not officially respond to it.

Shalit’s parents demonstrated in front of the premier’s office demanding more efforts for the release of their son who has been held by the Palestinian resistance in Gaza for the past five years.

They were joined by some 30 other sympathizers as the father urged Netanyahu to pay the price for the release of Shalit.

Abu Zuhri: Abbas should visit Gaza after gov’t formation, not before

[ 27/06/2011 - 12:42 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said that implementing the reconciliation agreement is the priority and not the visit to Gaza by PA chief Mahmoud Abbas.

He said in a press statement on Monday that the Palestinian people want to see the reconciliation implemented on the ground rather than indulging in talks about Abbas’s visit to Gaza, which should take place after the formation of the unity government and not before it.

If Abbas wants to expedite his visit to Gaza he should stop breaching the agreement and imposing Salam Fayyad, who is not accepted by all national forces, Abu Zuhri said, adding that Abbas’s dictates were sabotaging the reconciliation.

For his part, Osama Hamdan, the head of foreign relations in Hamas, said that contacts between Fatah and Hamas on the reconciliation issue did not cease.

He said in a press statement on Monday that the Palestinian street was beginning to worry about the delay in implementing the reconciliation agreement.

Hamdan described the insistence on nominating Fayyad as “non-patriotic”, adding that his name was crossed out during the Fatah-Hamas meeting and the current attempt to impose him anew was raising suspicion that he was an Israeli-American candidate.

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