GAZA, March 14 (UPI) -- A top Hamas leader says residents of Gaza will continue to smuggle arms despite a nine-nation NATO plan to stop the weapons trafficking.
Moushir al-Masri accused the NATO countries of ignoring the Palestinian peoples' right to resistance and predicted the plan would fail, Ynetnews reported Saturday.
"The fact that the occupation is utilizing superpowers in order to stop arms from entering Gaza is yet more proof of its bankruptcy," said al-Masri, citing what he called "the tendency of the United States and most of the European nations to favor the Israeli occupation."
In the agreement announced Friday, the United States, Canada and seven other European countries vowed to share more intelligence information, exert more diplomatic pressure and intercept more weapons shipments coming over land and by sea to Gaza, Ynetnews said. Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway also signed the agreement.
The nine countries said eliminating smuggled weapons into Gaza is crucial to reaching a durable ceasefire.
