Islamist terror organization Hamas has attacked the latest statements by Palestinian Authority (PA) head Mahmoud Abbas, regarding possible reconciliation between the Fatah and Hamas. It noted that by speaking in threatening terms, Abbas was not creating a positive atmosphere.

Hamas stressed that the PLO Central Committee does not represent the Palestinian people and that it is, in fact, held captive by the Fatah movement.

Hamas was responding to an interview Abbas gave to Egyptian newspaper Al Masri al-Youm, in which he said that if Hamas does not agree to hold general elections, the PLO “will make a decision at the end of April, through the Central Committee, which is the Palestinian parliament.”

Hamas sokesman Fawzi Barhoum told PA news agency WAFA that Hamas wants to implement the reconciliation agreement signed in Cairo as a single package, and to do so simultaneously in Gaza and in the “West Bank,” or Judea and Samaria.

Barhoum said that while Abbas is attempting to build legitimacy for his rule, it is Hamas that has an absolute majority in the parliament, and Hamas does not recognize Abbas’s continued term as “president.”