The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, has stated that the recent American arrest warrant against Dr. Mousa Abu Marzouk, deputy chief of Hamas political bureau, and the arrest of so-called two Hamas members, was an attempt to lure votes of the Israeli lobby in the forthcoming presidential elections.
Mohammed Nazzal, political bureau member of the Movement, told Al-Jazeera TV network in a telephone contact that the American administration was trying to boost its popularity through the so-called “fighting terrorism”.
Nazzal, speaking from Beirut, questioned the validity of redirecting charges against Abu Marzouk that were already leveled against him during his detention in the USA in the period 1995 to 1997 before his release and deportation to Jordan from which he was again deported to Syria.
Asked on the accusations against Mohammed Khalil Salah, 51, and Abdul Halim Hasan Al-Ashkar, 46, who where arrested in Chicago and Washington respectively for alleged membership in Hamas, Nazzal said that Hamas had no organization in the USA.
“There is a big Palestinian community in the USA in addition to Arab and Muslim communities that sympathize with Hamas, Palestinian resistance and the Palestinian cause in general,” he explained.
The American secretary of justice, John Ashkroft, Friday told a press conference that the two men were arrested for suspicion of affiliation with Hamas, which the USA had labeled as a “terrorist organization”. (albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
