The Islamic Hamas movement said on Sunday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wants to install a U.S.-controlled government that only works on security issues.
"Abbas wants to have a security government achieving the American and Israeli goals," said Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas leader based in Gaza. His remarks came a day after Abbas called for forming an independent Palestinian government to overcome internal political crisis.
"It will be a weak government that the economic situation can affect its political work," Zahar said.
The Palestinian internal crisis widened last year after Hamas routed pro-Abbas forces and took control of the Gaza Strip, effectively separating it from the West Bank where Abbas consolidated his rule by a setting up a caretaker government.
Hamas controls the coastal strip, home to 1.5 million people, with a government sacked by Abbas after the Gaza takeover in June 2007.
Abbas on Saturday said "We really want to form a government that is not politically related to the Palestinian political factions. We want a government that ends the embargo and lift the suffocating blockade imposed on Gaza."
Abbas argued that an independent government can overcome Israeli blockade on the Hamas-controlled Gaza and can enjoy international recognition.
Hamas, which won the parliamentary elections in 2006, rejects any proposal to from a government without considering the results of the elections.
Hamas boycotted an Egyptian effort to reconcile it with Fatah loyal to Abbas at a national dialogue previously scheduled for early this month in Cairo.
Zahar, however, accused Abbas of thwarting the national dialogue by continuing a clampdown against Hamas supporters in the West Bank.
Source: Xinhua
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