Al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-“Zawahiri had harsh words for Hamas on hearing of its March 2007 agreement to form a national unity government with Fatah [The Movement for the National Liberation of Palestine], especially as the deal was brokered in Mecca by Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah. Hamas, he [Zawahiri] sadly claimed, had ‘fallen into the quagmire of surrender,’ and the leadership had ‘sold out’ to the king: ‘The leadership of Hamas has committed an aggression against the rights of the Islamic nation by accepting what it called respecting international agreements [a code word for the Oslo process].’ ” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Bruce Riedel, The Search for Al Qaeda, Page 128