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Hamas expects unity pact with Fatah in mid-October
Wed, Sep 30 08:58 AM
The Islamist group Hamas will meet its rival Palestinian Fatah party in mid-October and expects to ratify an Egyptian-mediated reconciliation pact, Hamas's leader in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, said on Tuesday.
Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007 after routing Fatah forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas, who administers the West Bank, and Cairo is now trying to heal the rift to pave the way for legislative and presidential elections.
Asked about the possibility of ratifying the pact next month, Haniyeh said: "This is what we expect and this is what we hope for. It is very possible to sign, to end the division, to restore national unity and to attend to national causes."
Haniyeh told the pan-Arab al-Arabiya television station that Hamas had asked Egypt to amend some of the reconciliation pact's proposals, but declined to give further details.
However, Fatah official Mohammad Dahlan said a meeting had yet to be confirmed. "No date has been set and this will be discussed by Fatah tonight," said Dahlan, a former Gaza-based strongman who now lives in the West Bank.
Hamas's exiled leader, Khaled Meshaal, described talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo on Monday as very positive and said Cairo would ask all Palestinian factions for a national meeting in October to ratify the reconciliation pact.
Dahlan said that reaching agreement on security and a date for the elections was key to clinching a unity deal.
"Meshaal's language was flexible and positive but substance is more important and by substance I mean a date for the election as well as the shape of the future security forces," he said.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Mohammad Assadi in Ramallah; Writing by Joseph Nasr, Editing by David Stamp)
Wed, Sep 30 08:58 AM
The Islamist group Hamas will meet its rival Palestinian Fatah party in mid-October and expects to ratify an Egyptian-mediated reconciliation pact, Hamas's leader in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, said on Tuesday.
Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007 after routing Fatah forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas, who administers the West Bank, and Cairo is now trying to heal the rift to pave the way for legislative and presidential elections.
Asked about the possibility of ratifying the pact next month, Haniyeh said: "This is what we expect and this is what we hope for. It is very possible to sign, to end the division, to restore national unity and to attend to national causes."
Haniyeh told the pan-Arab al-Arabiya television station that Hamas had asked Egypt to amend some of the reconciliation pact's proposals, but declined to give further details.
However, Fatah official Mohammad Dahlan said a meeting had yet to be confirmed. "No date has been set and this will be discussed by Fatah tonight," said Dahlan, a former Gaza-based strongman who now lives in the West Bank.
Hamas's exiled leader, Khaled Meshaal, described talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo on Monday as very positive and said Cairo would ask all Palestinian factions for a national meeting in October to ratify the reconciliation pact.
Dahlan said that reaching agreement on security and a date for the elections was key to clinching a unity deal.
"Meshaal's language was flexible and positive but substance is more important and by substance I mean a date for the election as well as the shape of the future security forces," he said.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Mohammad Assadi in Ramallah; Writing by Joseph Nasr, Editing by David Stamp)
