A senior official in the Palestinian government slammed on Saturday an alleged "conspiracy" to topple the legitimate Hamas-led cabinet which was elected by the Palestinian people.

"The conspiracy aims at accelerating the government's collapse and failure, and tries to force it to make concessions and give up the principles of the Palestinian cause," the Refugee Affairs Minister Atef Adwan told reporters in Gaza.

Adwan accused national, regional and international groups of taking part in what he called the conspiracy. On the internal level, he implicitly indicated the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.

"There is a suspicious and hostile tendency among some Palestinian factions," he said, adding, "Since the formation of the government, the tendency has been leading an organized campaign of libel and defamation which aims at inventing lies and knitting media stories against the government."

In addition, the minister accused organizers of the recent general strikes of serving "external interests that intend to harm the Palestinian cause."

Tens of thousands of Palestinian government employees went on strike in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on Saturday in protest against unpaid salaries.

Adwan disclosed that the Prime Minister Ismail Haneya will deliver "an important historical speech" in the near future during which he will speak about "the government's hopes and obstacles getting in the way the hopes."

Hamas, who overwhelmingly won the January election, took the rein of the Palestinian government in late March and it was facing both political and financial pressures due to the cutting of international fund by key donors after it refused to meet three demands to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept previous peace deals between Israel and the Palestinians.

Source: Xinhua