'FERMENT' AGAINST HAMAS

U.S. sees ferment against Hamas

WASHINGTON — The Hamas-led government faces a growing "ferment" of dissatisfaction among Palestinians suffering the effects of Western sanctions against the radical Islamic movement, a senior U.S. official said Saturday.

"Quite clearly there's a high degree of dissatisfaction with the fact that Hamas has failed to live up to what it said it would do — that is govern effectively in favor of the Palestinian people," said State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack.

"There's a lot of ferment within the Palestinian political class and in the Palestinian areas," he said.

The Palestinians have suffered greatly from the effects of tight restrictions on aid imposed by the European Union and the United States after Hamas won control of the Palestinian legislature in elections earlier this year.

The financial sanctions have virtually bankrupt the Palestinian government and severely curtailed delivery of even basic social services.

McCormack was speaking after the United States and its partners in the so-called Quartet of powers trying to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process endorsed efforts by the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmud Abbas, to form a unity government with Hamas as a way out of the impasse.

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