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Trump’s position does not serve regional stability, says Hamas

January 21, 2017 at 1:31 pm

President Donald Trump [Samuel Corum / Anadolu Agency]

The deputy leader of Hamas said on Friday that the position of US President Donald Trump regarding Palestine does not serve stability in the region, Quds Press has reported. Mousa Abu Marzook explained that Trump’s positions encourage extremist Israelis to carry on with their extremism. He cited, for example, Trump’s promise to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, which has been hailed by extremist Jews in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

“As president, Donald Trump should revaluate the consequences of his remarks and policies, including moving the embassy to Jerusalem,” suggested Abu Marzook. “This would have an impact not only on American interests, but also those of the whole region.”

The senior Hamas official, who lived in the United States for years, said that neither Trump’s remarks nor his nominations make Hamas bet on him regarding the future of the Palestinian cause and returning the rights of the Palestinians. However, he drew a distinction between campaign promises and the real policies of US presidents. “The promises do not always turn into realities on the ground,” he pointed out.

On the question of internal reconciliation, Abu Marzook said that discussions and agreements mean nothing if they are not changed into “political action”. The key for this is in the hands of Fatah and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, he insisted. All of the recent meetings with Fatah discussed the same issues and reached the same conclusion. Furthermore, he said that there is no consensus over the programme of the prospective national agreement government, which was reported by the media last week.

Abu Marzook criticised Abbas’s speech about Gaza in which the PA head blamed the Israeli siege for the suffering of the territory and claimed that he would work to ease the siege if Hamas quits. “This proves that Abbas is punishing Gaza due to the 2007 incidents,” insisted the Hamas official.