Hamas blasts Abbas over two-state solution

• Tweet

BEIRUT, Lebanon, June 22 (UPI) -- Hamas has blasted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for suggesting that the Islamic militant group may accept a two-state solution and recognize Israel.

A Hamas statement faxed to United Press International's Beirut office Thursday said Abbas' declaration "only reflects his views, not those of Hamas, which is perfectly capable of expressing its stance and does not need a spokesman."

Abbas said Wednesday on the sidelines of the conference of Nobel Prize winners in Jordan that Hamas, which leads the Palestinian government, might announce its acceptance of a two-state solution in the coming days.

Hamas strongly criticized Abbas for meeting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during their participation in the conference, in Petra, south Jordan, as guests of honor.

"We had expected, in the light of Zionist massacres ordered by Olmert against the Palestinians and in view of the U.S.-Zionist siege imposed on our people, that the president of the Palestinian Authority refrains from meeting this terrorist (Olmert) until the killings stop and the siege on the Palestinian people and its government is lifted," the statement said.

The statement described Abbas' remarks on Hamas' possible acceptance of a two-state solution as "strange and unaccepted," and accuses him of "provocation against Hamas and exaggeration in holding it responsible for the present situation."

"We reject such claims and Abbas would have better acted by condemning what is happening against Palestinians and holding Israel responsible," Hamas said.

The militant group also lashed out at the Jordanian government, asking "how would Abbas justify his meeting with Olmert in Jordan, this Arab country which refrained from receiving Palestinian ministers, the last of whom was the minister of national economy, while it opened its arms widely to welcome the prime minister of the Zionist entity?"