by Roee Nahmias, YnetNews.com
A senior Hamas figure said Friday that official and unofficial US sources have asked the Islamist group to refrain from making any statements regarding contacts with Washington, this following reports that a senior American official is due to arrive in an Arab country in the coming days to relay a telegram from the Obama Administration.
The Hamas figure told the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper that the Americans fear discussing the talks publicly would “rouse the Jewish lobby and other pressure groups in the US and cause them to pressure the administration to suspend all talks with Hamas.”
The Hamas figure, who is close to Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister of the government in Gaza, added, “This is a sensitive subject. The Americans don’t want anyone to comment on it because this would catch the attention of pressure groups (in the US) and cause problems.”
He said Hamas’ exiled leadership in Damascus is overseeing the contacts behind closed doors.
On Wednesday a Washington-based Arabic newspaper quoted a senior official as saying that an American envoy is scheduled to meet with Hamas representatives in an Arab country and hand them a letter from the Obama Administration.
According to the report, the official said Washington has no choice but to work with Hamas due to its influence in the Arab and Islamic world.
And we are surprised about this why??? Such actions coming from the same administration who’s Vice President (While a U.S. Senator) once told an Israeli Prime Minister “… you’d better get used to the idea of a Nuclear Iran”.
I had the honor of speaking one-on-one with Ambassador Dennis Ross in October of 2008 as he was traveling throughout the U.S. trying to convince Jews here in America to support Obama. While speaking with him, I asked him what he thought about the Biden statement. He claimed he never heard it before, but would in fact ask the Senator if such a statement were true. He went on to promise me that if it were true, he would resign his position on the campaign team. Today, he is still with Obama and Biden. Based on the policies of the current administration, I guess the Ambassador is willing to accept any statement given to him whether it comes from one liar or another.