The Hamas terror group condemned the Saturday appointment of Hussein al-Sheikh as Palestinian Authority chair Mahmoud Abbas' deputy.
In a statement, Hamas said that al-Sheikh's appointment is an improper step taken in order to respond to outside dictates and which entrenches the approach of exclusion and inconsiderate decisions on the part of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The terror group also slammed the PLO for not reaching national agreements and taking the "Palestinian nation's" desires into account.
The terror group claimed that the appointment, a decision by the PLO leadership, expresses the PLO's insistence on continuing to harm the organization's institutions instead of serving as a framework to support all of the forces operating in the "Palestinian arena."
According to Hamas, the preference of the "Palestinian nation" is to end "the aggression, the war of decimation and starvation," and to join forces to act against the "occupation and settlement" - not appointments and division of the "cake" of leadership in order to pacify outside sources.
Concluding its statement, Hamas called on all Palestinian Arab groups to oppose the step and steadfastly support the rebuilding of the PLO according to its "national and democratic" foundations, without bowing to outside dictates and in a way which will express the desire of the people and serve their "just issues."