infopalHamas has never been in the "pocket of anybody and will not allow anybody to ever interfere in its political and internal affairs", Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told Ma’an on Thursday.
Barhoum stressed that it is the right of the government to have good relations with the Arab and Islamic countries, or any other country that is not imposing the siege on the Palestinians and their government, in order to ensure the financial support to the Palestinian people. He stressed that his movement does not allow these countries to interfere in the affairs of the government.
The spokesman denied the Israeli media reports that a deal to release the captured Israeli soldier Shalit was cancelled when Iran paid 50 million US dollars to the Hamas leader Khalid Mash’al. He accused the Israeli mass media of trying to implicate Hamas, and its government, in the US-classified ‘axis of evil’.
He said that there is nothing new in regards to the issue of the captured soldier.
Barhoum added that the Egyptians were exerting efforts to bring the two Palestinian political movements, Fatah and Hamas, together and to make their points of view closer, but it was not an initiative. Barhoum expects that there will be an agreement between the Palestinians regarding a unity government after ‘Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim feast that follows the holy fasting month of Ramadan.
He expressed his astonishment at Abbas’ call to establish a government of professionals, asking, "Is there is any government in the world which has no relation with politics?"
The Israeli daily ‘Yedioth Ahronoth’ published on Thursday that Iran foiled a deal to exchange the Israeli soldier by paying Khalid Mash’al 50 million US dollars.