Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will not attend a national dialogue which is aimed mainly to broker reconciliation between his Fatah movement and rival Hamas, a senior Palestinian official said on Monday.
Abbas will not attend the dialogue scheduled for Nov. 9 in Cairo "because he will be busy in arranging Fatah's internal affairs," said the official, who declined to give his name.
The Palestinian factions will discuss the formation of a unity government in an attempt to achieve reconciliation and overcome the consequences of Hamas' violent takeover of the Gaza Strip last year.
Meanwhile, the source revealed that Abbas issued a decree to add a senior aide to the Fatah delegation for the dialogue.
The presence of Abbas' media advisor Ahmed Abdel Rahman in the delegation "reflects that Fatah was interested in making the dialogue successful," according to the source.
The source also expressed fears that Hamas' procedures in the Gaza Strip "were not encouraging the dialogue."
Hamas has said it would select its representatives to the dialogue according to the level of representation of Fatah at the long-awaited fence-mending event.
Fatah accuses Hamas of cracking down against its supporters in the Gaza Strip, which Hamas bloodily took over from Fatah-dominated security forces loyal to Abbas in June last year.
Source:Xinhua
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