Beirut - Taqrib News Agency (TNA) - Mahmoud Zahar, Senior member of Hamas’ political bureau, assured that "occupied Palestine Liberation is closer than ever."

Zahar dismissed Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas’ decision to seek U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state as “a political jump in the air” designed to scupper an inter-Palestinian reconciliation.

Senior Hamas official dismissed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ decision to seek U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state as “a political jump in the air” designed to scupper an inter-Palestinian reconciliation.

Zahar words was in Municipality of Sidon (35 km from Beirut)after touring the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh outside Sidon. After praying at Khaled bin al-Walid Mosque in the camp, he later met with parents of Palestinians killed by "Israeli" gunfire at the border village of Maroun al-Ras on May 15.

Abbas’ step is "a meaningless political jump in the air. It is "designed" to torpedo the program to implement reconciliation," Zahar said.
 
He urged Abbas to return to the agreement reached by Hamas and its rival, the moderate Fatah movement, in Cairo a few weeks before Abbas went to the U.N. to press the Palestinian statehood bid.

Defying U.S. and "Israeli" opposition, Abbas last month officially submitted a request to the U.N. for recognition of Palestine as a full member state. Addressing the U.N. General Assembly, Abbas said that "the time has come for Palestinian independence."

Hamas and Fatah officials held talks in Cairo in August with the aim of implementing the reconciliation agreement that they had reached in May, ending their four-year rift. According to the pact, they must also organize elections by May 2012. 

Zahar denied reports that Hamas was planning to move the offices of its political leadership from Syria because of the unrest there to other countries.

Referring to the wave of popular uprisings in the Arab world, he called on Arab states to grant their peoples the right to achieve political participation and run their own affairs.

Zahar drew a distinction between the popular uprising in Syria and revolutions in other Arab countries, saying Syria has "a special status." He called on the Syrian leadership and people to reach agreement that achieves the objectives of the resistance program and the goals of the Syrian people.

The Hamas official reiterated the Palestinians' rejection of resettlement in any Arab country, but stressed that improvement of the Palestinians' conditions in Lebanon will help them return to their homes.