The U.S. administration politically used Gaza reconstruction conference to put pressure and strip political stances from Hamas, the Islamic movement said on Tuesday.
The U.S. administration and some of the international donors, who met in Egypt Sunday, "have attempted to politically invest the money and use Gaza Strip's need of reconstruction as a way to extort Hamas," said Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas' spokesman.
The donors raised about US$4.5 billion in aid to rebuild the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip following a large-scale Israeli military offensive that took place in December and January.
Hamas, which seized Gaza by force from President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement in 2007, was not invited to the conference and the donors stressed that Hamas should be put aside from overseeing the reconstruction process.
"The aim of the conferees was to bolster Abu Mazen's (Abbas) authority of West Bank and to intervene in our internal affairs," Barhoum said.
As Egypt succeeded to resume reconciliation talks between Hamas and Fatah, Barhoum warned that the conference may "badly reflect on the unity talks in Cairo."
(Xinhua News Agency March 3, 2009)