Deposed Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haneya of Hamas said Thursday he was ready to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah anywhere to hold dialogues and end ongoing internal political crisis.
A statement issued by Haneya's office said Haneya expressed his readiness to meet Abbas during phone conversations with several Arab leaders on the eve of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which started on Thursday.
Haneya said he wanted the dialogue to "restore the Palestinian people's unity and end the divisions among them."
During the holy month, Muslims are required to abstain from food, drink and sex from dawn until dusk.
Haneya's appeal was the latest one in a series of similar calls by leaders of Hamas, which routed Abbas' Fatah militants in mid- June and seized control of the Gaza Strip, leaving over 100 people dead.
In response, Abbas dismissed the Hamas-led government under Haneya and appointed a new one in the West Bank city Ramallah, led by U.S.-backed prime minister Salam Fayyad.
As a result, the geographically-divided Palestinian territories has been politically split into two parts with two government -- with Hamas controlling Gaza and Fatah holding the West Bank.
Abbas has repeatedly rejects Hamas' calls for dialogues unless the Islamic movement retreated "the coup against the Palestinian legitimacy." He also demanded Hamas to give up its control of the Gaza Strip.
Haneya had held phone talks with prince of Qatar, the Sudanese President and the Yemeni leader, said the statement issued by Haneya's office. He also talked with Egyptian Intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who had long since mediated between Hamas and Fatah in previous rounds of talks.
Haneya briefed the leaders on the "difficult and complicated circumstances of the Gaza Strip" while urging Arab leaders to intervene.
The Gaza Strip is facing an unprecedented economic crisis and humanitarian disaster, especially after mid-June when Israel shut down all Gaza crossings following Hamas' takeover of the coastal Strip.
Residents in the Strip, totaling nearly 1.5 million, heavily depend on outside aid inflow of almost everything, from basic foodstuffs to medicine.
Haneya called on Egypt to help reopen the Rafah border crossing on the Gaza-Egyptian border, the only gateway to the outside world bypassing Israel.
Haneya also criticized the U.S.-proposed international peace conference slated for November, saying that Abbas' "wagering on the autumn conference will lead to nothing."
On July 16, U.S. President George W. Bush proposed to held the international conference, which would bring together Israel, the Palestinians and some neighboring Arab states, to help resume the stalled Middle East peace talks.
Source: Xinhua
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