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'US Plot Against Hamas' Revealed
By Al Jazeera
04/03/08 "Al
Jazeera" -- -- The US plotted to overthrow the
democratically elected Hamas government in the Palestinian
territories, according to leaked documents obtained by Al
Jazeera.
One of the documents appears to show that Washington tried to
persuade Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and leader of
Fatah, to remove Hamas from power.
One document, dated March 2007, states "the plan will enable the
Palestinian leadership to be more credible in the eyes of Israel
and the others".
But, when that plan failed, the US set up an operation to fund
Fatah fighters and drive Hamas out.
In Cairo, Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, justified
the arming of Fatah, saying the situation had called for it.
She said she had not read a report in Vanity Fair magazine which
quoted a former US intelligence official said to be knowledgable
of the US plans to overthrow Hamas after it failed to convince
Abbas to dissolve the cabinet.
US support
"It is very clear that Hamas is being armed. And it is very
clear that they are being armed in part by the Iranians," Rice
said on Tuesday.
"So if the answer is that if Hamas gets armed by the Iranians
and nobody helps to improve the security capabilities of the
legitimate Palestinian Authority security forces, that's not a
very good situation."
Rice said that international forces, including the US, would
therefore continue to work with the PA to bolster its forces to
keep security in its mandated region.
Responding to Rice's comments about Iranian support for Hamas,
Khaled Meshaal, the exiled Hamas political leader, told Al
Jazeera Rice was "lying".
"Their main concern is to provoke Iran," Meshaal said. "I'm
saying it again if they have proof of this let them produce it".
"Everyone knows the origins of the Israeli weapons, it's
American made while our men are using very simple homemade
arms," he said.
The US has openly supported Fatah and after Hamas seized control
of Gaza in June 2007, the US announced an $80m funding deal for
Fatah's security services in the West Bank.
Nour Odeh, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Ramallah, said that
many Palestinians would be upset that Fatah appeared to have
played into the hands of an American foreign policy that wanted
to make an example out of Hamas, whom the US labels a
"terrorist" organisation.
Emerging evidence
Hamas won democratic elections in January 2006, prompting
Western governments, which have refused to engage with Hamas, to
threaten to withdraw financial aid to the Palestinians.
Left with little international support, by June that year Hamas
and Fatah had agreed to form a unity government but were unable
to broker a conclusive end to factional fighting on the streets
of Gaza.
Allegations the US sought to remove Hamas in a coup dates back
to 2006, after the group had come to power through Palestinian
elections.
The leaked documents include a memo sent to Fatah officials,
apparently by a senior US diplomat in Jerusalem in November
2006, encouraging Fatah to declare a state of emergency and take
control.
The memo stated: "If Hamas does not agree [to accept a new
government] within the prescribed time, you should make clear
your intention to declare a state of emergency and form an
emergency government explicitly committed to that platform."
The plan was ignored by Abbas who instead formed a unity
government with Hamas in 2007, intended to bring an end to
fighting between the two factions.
The unity government, agreed in February 2007 with the mediation
of Saudi Arabia, appears to have prompted the second document
and a plan to oust Hamas by force, with the US bolstering
Mohammed Dahlan, the head of Fatah's security forces.
But the unity government failed to end factional fighting and in
June Hamas seized Gaza, dividing the Palestinian territories
into Gaza and the Fatah-controlled West Bank.
There has been no official response from Abbas regarding the
documents.
No official US stamps or seals appear on the document.
Source: Al Jazeera
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