Hamas denies news reports on its office in Damascus

The Hamas movement has strongly denied reports by Reuters from the Palestinian Authority territories that a high-ranking Hamas movement official and another official at the PLO said this movement has reinforced its presence in Damascus following the collapse of the peace talks between Syria and Israel and that Syria can use its pro-extremist groups against Israel from south Lebanon.

In a press statement, Hamas asserted that a claim by Reuters' correspondent that Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara had agreed to allow the movement to modernize and develop its office in Damascus during his meeting with the chairman of the movement's political bureau, Abu Marzouk last week is false and is baseless, asserting that no official from the Hamas movement in or outside Palestine made any statements to Reuters or to its correspondent on this matter.

Hamas' statement indicated that it is not the first time that untrue news has been published and other news reports fabricated by the Palestinian Authority PA officials in the service of "narrow interests," this correspondent is being linked with.

At the conclusion of its statement, Hamas said that such leaked news comes to serve Zionist objectives to pressure Syria after the failure of the Geneva talks, adding that this is not in the service of the Palestinian stand, nor the Arab one.