Jenin – Ma’an – President Mahmoud Abbas fiercely attacked the Hamas movement on Tuesday renewing accusations that the group is exploiting the controversy over the UN report on war crimes in Gaza to obstruct a national unity agreement.

Speaking during his first visit to the West Bank city of Jenin since he took office, Abbas said, “Hamas is making up pretexts to avoid conciliation agreement because they are happy with their emirate in Gaza.”

Abbas reiterated that he refuses to use force to end what he called the “Hamas coup” in the Gaza Strip. “This coup must come to an end through any means except the use of force. The means could be dialogue, and negotiations, but we will never agree to open fire on our own people,” he said.

Abbas also called on Hamas to accept new elections. “Come to the ballots through which you gained your legitimacy, to find out whether this legitimacy will be renewed or not. I will be the first one to give congratulations if the answer will be positive.”

In an unprecedented remark, Abbas accused Hamas leaders of fleeing to Sinai Peninsula in ambulances when the Gaza strip was under Israeli fire last winter. He also suggested that Hamas was responsible for provoking Israel’s war against the Gaza Strip. “Two weeks before the war, we telephoned Hamas leadership in order to extend the ceasefire.”

With regards to the Goldstone report on war crimes in Gaza, Abbas explained that the report was submitted to the UN Human Rights Council which will discuss it and refer it to other international entities.

“We proposed a Palestinian national project in Geneva which the world’s super powers did not approve, and it was not possible to recruit international support for the project, thus we found the best solution would be to postpone discussion of the case by the UN Human Rights Council rather than withdrawing that case,” he explained.

Source: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=231908