Hamas Chief Backs Palestinian U.N. Bid

Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal on Monday told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that his movement backs a Palestinian bid for enhanced United Nations status, a Hamas statement said.

But the statement, backed by a similar one from another member of the Hamas politburo in exile, appeared at odds with sentiments expressed by Hamas members in the Gaza Strip.

"Khaled Meshaal ... held a telephone conversation with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in which he affirmed that Hamas welcomes the step of going to the United Nations for state observer status," the statement said.

The statement, which comes just three days before Abbas is due to ask the U.N. General Assembly in New York to upgrade Palestinian representation, came after Hamas members in Gaza last week denied offering the president their backing.

But both Meshaal and fellow political bureau member Izzat al-Rishq said Monday that they supported the move, though they warned it should not "compromise" Palestinian "constants and rights."

"This move must be in the context of a vision and national strategy to maintain the national constants and rights and based on elements of power in the hands of our Palestinian people, the first of which is the resistance," Meshaal's statement said.

In his statement, Rishq said he "welcomed" the U.N. bid but warned it should not "sacrifice or compromise any inch of Palestinian land from the (Mediterranean) sea to the (Jordan) river."

On Thursday, the movement in Gaza had denied reports that Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya had offered his own backing for the U.N. bid in a telephone call with Abbas.

"It is not true," Hamas spokesman Taher al-Nunu said in a statement last Thursday evening, adding "the media should be more careful."

And on Saturday, Mahmud Zahar, a Gaza-based Hamas senior official who has often taken stances at odds with those of the leadership-in-exile, said the bid was "recognition of an official waiver of the 1948 borders."

Abbas is set to ask for state observer status for the Palestinians on Thursday, a little over a year after a failed bid to secure full state membership.

That request stalled in the Security Council, where is has been blocked by the United States, a permanent member and veto holder in the council.

Israel and Washington both oppose the new bid for enhanced U.N. status for the Palestinians, but the bid is expected to easily win the required majority in the General Assembly.

On Sunday, Abbas said he was "fully confident" ahead of the new application.

"We are going to the U.N. fully confident in our steps. We will have our rights because you are with us," he told a crowd of around 1,000 people demonstrating in support of the bid.

Abbas said the attempt to secure upgraded status was backed by many U.N. member states and by all the Palestinian political factions.

He said the U.N. move would be followed by steps to bridge the bitter political divide between his Fatah movement and its Islamist rival Hamas. "Today, the U.N. After that, reconciliation, and after that, our own state," he said.