Syria has renewed its call for a constructive national dialogue among all the Palestinian factions to avoid any provocative steps, the official newspaper Syria Times reported on Thursday.

Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Shara made the call while meeting visiting Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)'s political department chief Farouk Qaddoumi on Wednesday, according to the report.

During the meeting, Shara also called for a conclusion of a unified vision towards the current challenges in order to serve the interest of the Palestinian people.

For his part, Qaddoumi told reporters after the meeting that the Palestinian people are dissatisfied with the tense relations between the two major Palestinian factions, the ruling Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the former ruling Fatah movement in which Qaddoumi is a senior leader.

"We are doing our best to reach a program for political work," Qaddoumi added.

Qaddoumi stressed the necessity of a national accord in a bid to preserve the Palestinian national unity and resistance, accusing Israel of exploiting the current tension in the Palestinian territories to escalate its aggression against the Palestinian people.

There has been increasing armed clashes between the Fatah movement led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Hamas movement since Hamas took power following its surprising victory in the Jan. 25 parliamentary elections.

The political disagreement between the two rival factions also prompted Abbas to order a referendum on a statehood plan which implies recognition of Israel on July 26 after a national dialogue failed to reach an agreement. But Hamas has declared its rejection to the referendum.

Source: Xinhua