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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Abbas: Hamas-Fatah talks to continue |
| 2009-08-17 |
| Ma'an -- President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday that unity talks between Fatah and Hamas will continue despite an apparent scheduling conflict. In a speech in the West Bank city of Ramallah, he said that a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) decision to hold a meeting of the Palestinian National Council (PNC) on 26 and 27 August would not stop the unity talks, which were scheduled for the 25. Abbas said the PNC meeting "will not change our view of the Palestinian national dialogue because we are determined to continue dialogue." Abbas did not say whether the dialogue would be rescheduled. The president did say that he had received a letter from Egypt regarding the continuation of talks, but did not divulge its contents. These comments come just hours after senior Hamas leader Khalid Mash'al said that his group had received no word about the upcoming round of negotiations. I don't know whether the next round will be held as scheduled or not. We told the Egyptians that we want to solve the current crises before any future sessions are held," Mash'al explained. Mash'al also said that Hamas was open to the idea of other countries, aside from Egypt, mediating in the ongoing dialogue with Fatah. The rival movements have been openly in conflict since 2007, when Hamas took full control of the Gaza Strip in a brief armed struggle. Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006. "We are ready and we have new ideas that we will discuss," Abbas said of the ongoing effort to reconcile the two groups, his first official pronouncement on the unity issue since the end of Fatah's general congress in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, where the group elected new leaders. "I cannot deny that we are in the midst of a conflict with Hamas," he said. "We can say that the Fatah movement has succeeded, but it still have to face other challenges, which are legislative and presidential elections that we have called for," he added. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 "We're gonna need some new insults..." |
| Posted by: mojo 2009-08-17 10:33 |
| #1 Welcome to the semi-annual Crips-Bloods Peace Conference. |
| Posted by: Black Bart Ebberens7700 2009-08-17 10:10 |