A stand by Hamas leadership

The Jordanian weekly al-Majd said that the political bureau of the Hamas movement has been making contacts during the last week to form an alternative leadership of a secret nature to succeed the current leadership of the movement in case its chairman and other prominent figures are arrested.

The paper added, according to well-informed sources in Amman, that the chairman of the political bureau of the Hamas movement, Khaled Mashaal, made several contacts and consultations from Tehran by different means with Hamas leaders in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan and Syria, Lebanon and the Gulf states with the objective of taking part in "establishing the substitute secret leadership."

Sources from the paper indicated that this plan aims at substituting the leadership and perpetuating Hamas' presence in its areas of existence.