Zahhar: Hamas will sweep to victory in next elections

Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahhar said Sunday that his movement would win a sweeping victory in upcoming legislative elections due in May. The Hamas leader said that Hamas would gain a better percentage than their 2006 election victory, where they won 74 of an available 132 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council. Hamas has not yet made a decision about a presidential candidate, he added. Zahhar made the remarks during an interview with London based pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper. Asked whether Hamas is an offspring of the Muslim Brotherhood, Zahhar said "there is no need for such a debate, what is important is the cultural project. "We don’t interfere in the internal affairs of Arab countries because we believe that one day we will receive support from Arab and Islamic countries in order to realize our goals.” Zahhar said that a movement like the Arab Spring becomes "inevitable" when Arab and Islamic countries experience the same oppression, injustice, occupation and hunger. He added that organizations in the Arab world should establish a federal union and youth movements should take the lead. "This movement should believe in its religion and recruit all those who serve their homeland’s interests in order to be able to reform the nation.” In 2006 elections, Hamas defeated the Fatah movement, which had long-dominated Palestinian politics. The United States and the European Union suspended all aid to the Palestinian territories as a result. The aftermath of the elections saw some of the worst internal Palestinian fighting in a decade and raised fears of a civil war. Palestinian factions have been locked in reconciliation talks in the Egyptian capital over the past week. Fatah and Hamas leaders had met on Sunday and other political parties joined the Egypt-brokered talks on Tuesday. The rival Palestinian factions took a significant step towards reconciliation on Thursday when Hamas said it planned to join President Mahmoud Abbas's Palestine Liberation Organization.