US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the Israeli regime’s Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi have reportedly expressed shared concerns about potential victory of the Palestinian Hamas Islamic resistance movement in upcoming parliamentary elections in the occupied territories.

Ashkenazi pronounced the growing fears of the anti-Palestinian occupying regime over the likely victory of Hamas candidates in next month polls during a phone conversation with his American counterpart on Friday, RT reported citing the Tel Aviv-based Zionist Walla news website.

According to the report, the top Israeli diplomat further claimed that the possible election victory of the popular, Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement would come as the result of growing divisions among Hamas’s rival Fatah faction, based in the West Bank.

Sharing Ashkenazi’s worries, the top US diplomat insisted that whoever takes part in the Palestinian polls “must renounce violence, recognize Israel and respect previous deals," while ironically claiming that Washington believes that “Palestinians should enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity and democracy.”

The boastful rhetoric by Blinken, however, contradicts with the wide consensus among Palestinian observers that all of the previous US-brokered “peace deals” between the Israeli regime and the Palestinian Authority have, without exception, favored the interests and desires of the occupying regime, with Washington doing absolutely nothing in face of Israeli defiance of their own commitments in the accords that gave little to the Palestinian side.

Responding to the Israeli regime’s worries about the potential outcome of the Palestinian general elections, slated for May 22, Blinken further asserted that while Washington does not oppose the holding of the vote, he shares the preference of the Israeli officials that the Palestinians delay the polls “on their own accord,” the report added, without elaborating.

The development came nearly a week after Palestinian election officials announced the approval of all 36 applications submitted by three dozen political groups to run in the long-anticipated legislative elections next month.

The vote is part of an effort by key Palestinian factions, including Fatah and Hamas, to boost support for Palestinian governance.

The Palestinian leadership has been divided between Fatah and Hamas since 2006. Back then, Hamas scored a landslide victory in parliamentary polls in the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip.

Hamas has ever since been running the densely-populated coastal enclave, while Fatah has been based in the autonomous parts of the occupied West Bank.

In January, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced the 2021 elections would also include presidential vote on July 31 and the National Council elections slated for August 31.

Palestinian factions in recent months have announced a unified stance against attempts by Israel, the United States and some Arab countries to undermine the Palestinian cause, denouncing any form of normalization with the occupying regime as “a stab in the back” of not only the Palestinians but the entire Muslim world.

Relations between the Palestinian Authority and the United States soured after the administration of former President Donald Trump recognized the whole Jerusalem al-Quds as the “capital” of Israel and moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the city. The former US president also cut aid to Palestinians in the West Bank and proposed a much-condemned plan – known as the Deal of the Century – that allowed Israel to seize large parts of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley.

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