US pushed groups to shun Hamas-led govt - Hamas

Sanaa, Mar 20: Palestinian militant group Hamas accused the United States today of putting pressure on rival Palestinian groups to shun a Hamas-led government, leaving the Islamic group to govern alone.

Hamas's failure to attract any partners and its move to appoint Hamas loyalists to top ministerial posts could bolster US and Israeli efforts to isolate the new government.

The group's leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal, in Yemen as part of a tour to gain political and financial support, said Israel could use a government solely run by Hamas as a pretext to launch strikes at Palestinians.

''United States placed pressure on ... Palestinian factions to not participate in the government so that the government will be purely Hamas and Israel can justify carrying out its plan to attack the Palestinian people,'' Meshaal told reporters in Yemen.

The militant Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) became the last Palestinian faction yesterday to turn down Hamas's offer to form a coalition government.

Israel and the United States have called on other nations to boycott Hamas, which crushed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's long-dominant Fatah faction in January parliamentary polls, until it disarms and recognises the Jewish state and interim peace deals.

Late yesterday, Meshaal said Arab states who have pledged financial aid will specify the amount of funds they will give when they meet at an Arab summit in Khartoum later this month.

Hamas, which presented its cabinet to Abbas yesterday, said it won financial backing from states including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Qatar, but no figures have been officially announced.

Reuters

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