Hamas: Abbas' call for UN recognition of non-member state 'solo'

Islamic Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, said Thursday Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' bid to the United Nations for a non-member Palestinian state is "a solo action." Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said in a press statement emailed to reporters that Abbas' move to ask for the UN recognition of a Palestinian state "wasn't agreed upon or consulted by the entire Palestinians." Abu Zuhri added that Abbas made an unaccompanied step, adding " it is just a jump in the air that won't have any political implication on the ground." Meanwhile, senior Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar declined to make comments to Abbas' earlier address to the UN General Assembly, saying the speech doesn't have anything new. Spokesman of the deposed government of Hamas in the Gaza Strip Taher al-Noono told Xinhua that Abbas' speech was passionate and expressed a status of despair that he lives in. "Abbas admitted that the track of peaceful negotiations with Israel had failed. Abbas was supposed to declare at the UN that the peace talks had failed and there has to be a unified Palestinian program based on resistance," said al-Noono. Earlier on Thursday, Abbas announced in his speech at the UN that the Palestinians are keeping their efforts to gain full membership of a Palestinian state to reinforce peace opportunities. "I call on you to prevent another new Nakba (disaster) in the Palestinian territories, and I call on you to recognize a free and independent state of Palestine before time runs," said Abbas. The Palestinians insist to apply to the UN to gain a non-member state of Palestine in the General Assembly after the peace process had remained stalled since October 2010 due to disputes on the issue of settlements. The United States and Israel oppose the bid to the UN and call on the Palestinians to gain a Palestinian state through direct peace negotiations but not through applying to the UN.