Hamas denies storing weapons in Jordan

ISN SECURITY WATCH (Wednesday, 19 April 2006: 13.17 CET) – Hamas denied on Wednesday that it was responsible for an arms cache discovered in Jordan and said it regretted a decision by the Jordanian government to cancel a visit to Amman by the new Palestinian Authority (PA) foreign minister.

A Jordanian government spokesperson said on Tuesday that security forces had uncovered a Hamas weapons cache including rocket launchers, explosives, and automatic weapons.

Hamas was also accused of using Jordan as a base for anti-Israeli activities, Reuters reports.

PA Deputy-Prime Minister Naser al-Shaer said that the new Hamas-led Palestinian government had no links to the cache.

Al-Shaer told Reuters: "We have no information about this incident and we are certain the brethren in Jordan will find out the Palestinians are not involved in such acts."

Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri told reporters, "These accusations are false and completely contradict the well-known Hamas attitude that it does not intervene [...] in the internal affairs of other countries."

Jordanian government spokesperson Nasser Judeh confirmed that Wednesday's visit by Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar had been "put off until further notice". The visit would have been the first by a senior Hamas figure since Jordan expelled the movement's leadership in 1999.

Hamas has said that all of its cabinet members have resigned from the organization.

The mass resignation is designed to allow diplomatic contacts with countries in the international community that have called for Hamas to disarm and to change its basic positions on Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.