AFP / JORDAN TIMES

CAIRO — Senior Hamas official Mahmud Zahar slammed a Palestinian unity deal as a “mistake” that has thrown the Islamist movement into crisis, in an interview with Egypt’s official MENA agency published on Sunday.

Hamas leader Khaled Mishaal signed an agreement with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas earlier this month placing Abbas at the head of an interim government charged with organising elections later this year.

The decision to have Abbas head the government “is a mistake”, Zahar told MENA. “No one inside the Hamas movement was consulted.”

The deal signed in Qatar ends a long-running disagreement over the premiership that stalled Palestinian reconciliation, but Zahar said that “practically it cannot be implemented”.

“If the consultations took place among the small circle around the political bureau [headed by Mishaal abroad], then this is unacceptable,” he said.

The agreement “needs to be reviewed, so Hamas leaders at home and abroad will meet over the issue in the coming two days”.

READ MORE HERE: http://jordantimes.com/palestinian-unity-deal-a-mistake