Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a Hamas leader in the West Bank, said that the statements of David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, are a blatant, naive and unacceptable interference under any circumstances.

ousef stressed, in a press statement on Thursday in response to the US ambassador's statements, that only the Palestinian people can choose their leadership.

Friedman had said that Washington might support the dismissed leader from Fatah Movement Muhammad Dahlan to be the president of the Palestinian Authority to replace the current president Mahmoud Abbas.

Yousef pointed out that Friedman’s statement might be within the framework of planned future arrangements and within the attempts to impose certain leaders on the Palestinian people.

In another context, Yousef emphasized that national dialogues are still continuing in order to complete the formation of the special committees that the meeting of the general secretaries of the Palestinian factions discussed earlier in order to finalize the recommendations for the meeting that will be held after five weeks.

The leader pointed out that the occupation did not like the internal Palestinian rapprochement and threatened some Palestinian leaders with arrest.

He added, "The occupation continues to investigate some leaders and cadres of the Legislative Council affiliated with Hamas, threatening them that any person who will have a role in the reconciliation file or the current arrangements will expose himself to arrest."

"But we say we will not yield to the occupation’s demands and we will continue with our project and with what we agree upon as Palestinians”, he stressed.

 

Source: The Palestinian Information Center