A senior Hamas leader denied in a telephone call with Albawaba.com the news reports about alleged secret meeting held about two months ago in Lebanon between Hamas, Hizbullah and al Qaeda organization representatives to discuss joint plans and “gear up for new attacks in the United States, Britain and other countries.”
Hamas spokesman in Gaza strip Mahmoud al Zahar described the news reports as “baseless and total fallacy.”
Al Zahar accused the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, and the CIA of fabricating the story. “They have no evidence on their allegation and if they do, let them show it to the world,” said al Zahar.
He added, “Had we asked the devil to prepare such a false report, he couldn’t have prepared it in such a manner.”
“The affair is blatant as Sharon and the CIA want to create an international impression that Hamas participates through its Jihad operations inside Palestine in the international terrorism by linking us with al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden and the same applies to Hizbullah. The aim of such accusations is to suppress the resistance in Palestine and south Lebanon and gather the largest number of Arab states under the cloak of fighting terror in order to fight this resistance,” said al Zahar.
U.S. broadcaster ABC reported late Monday that representatives from the Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network held a meeting in March in Lebanon with resistance groups from the Middle East.
Citing U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials, ABC said that leaders from al-Qaeda held a summit with Lebanese-based Hizbullah and Hamas . The groups allegedly discussed possible coordination of attacks against targets including the U.S. and Britain, both domestically and overseas, ABC added. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
