TEL AVIV, Israel – A Hamas spokesman today denied his group gave Sen. John Kerry a letter for President Obama, while another Hamas official told WND a letter was sent and a third claimed his Islamist group previously sent written communication to Obama.
The letter saga began yesterday when a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, told the BBC that Hamas left a letter for Obama at a U.N. compound in Gaza visited by Kerry that day. Afterward, Fox News reported it was Kerry who received the letter.
A UNWRA spokesman, Christopher Gunness, today changed his agency’s tune slightly when he said, “We think [the letter] is from Hamas.”
He had no details on why the UNRWA thought the letter was from Hamas or what it said.
“We’re very polite. We don’t open other people’s mail,” Gunness said. “We gave it to Kerry to take to Washington.”
Next, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum denied any letter was given to Kerry.
“Hamas denies any such thing had happened. No letter was given to John Kerry,” Barhoum told reporters.
But Mushir al-Massri, a Hamas spokesman and parliament member, told WND earlier today there was a letter but he hadn’t seen it.
Reached for comment, Ahmed Yousef, Hamas’ chief political adviser in Gaza, denied any letter was given to Kerry yesterday.
But when told al-Massri had stated there was a letter, and Fox News reported Kerry received the communication, Yousef replied, “I have no comment, then.”
Asked if there has been any communication between Hamas and Obama, Yousef told WND, “Yes. We sent him a letter before from the office of [former Hamas Prime Minister Ismail] Haniyeh.”
Yousef, who coordinates Hamas’ contacts with the international community, wouldn’t say when any such letter was sent.
WND reported exclusively in November Hamas planned to send a letter to Obama. Yousef, at that time, called Obama’s win a “historic victory” for the world and told WND that Hamas was sending a letter of congratulation to the president-elect.
Hamas’ official charter calls for the murder of Jews and the destruction of Israel. The Islamist group is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, shootings and rocket attacks aimed at Jewish civilians.
Obama has repeatedly condemned Hamas as a terrorist organization that should be isolated until it renounces violence and recognizes Israel’s right to exist.
But that hasn’t stopped Hamas from heaping praise on the American leader.
Just after the November election, Hamas’ Yousef called Obama’s presidency a “historic victory” for the world and an opportunity to change U.S. foreign policy toward engagement with America’s foes.
Yousef, speaking to WND by cell phone from Gaza in November, said Hamas was drafting a letter of congratulation to be sent directly to Obama. He said the current draft of the letter praised the president-elect as “another John F. Kennedy, or great Roosevelt.”
“We want to be one of the first to congratulate him,” Yousef said.
The Hamas leader said Obama’s job will be to “restore America’s dignity in the world and put an end to the wars in the region.”
