A senior Palestinian official affiliated with Fatah movement said on Sunday that Egypt is holding intensive contacts with Palestinian factions to launch an inter-Palestinian reconciliation dialogue.
Nabil Shaath told reporters at his office in Cairo that Egypt "has immediately started intensive contacts with different Palestinian parties to resume the Palestinian reconciliation."
The comprehensive Palestinian dialogue was initially scheduled to start on Monday in Cairo. However, Egypt announced on Saturday that the dialogue is to be postponed upon a request presented by both Hamas and Islamic Jihad (Holy War) movements.
Shaath said he expects that "the Palestinian national dialogue will be resumed in Cairo within the coming two weeks."
He slammed Hamas movement, saying "the reasons to postpone the dialogue were illusive."
Hamas insisted that its attendance at the comprehensive dialogue in Cairo hinges on the stoppage of arrests staged by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on Hamas "members and supporters in the West Bank."
Hamas also conditioned that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is also Fatah movement's leader, "should join the sessions of the dialogue instead of just delivering a speech at the opening ceremony."
"Hamas reasons for postponing the dialogue were unreal and illusive," Shaath told a number of Palestinian reporters at his office in Cairo, noting that "Egypt, however, wouldn't stop its efforts to achieve the Palestinian reconciliation."
Shaath said that the postponement of the dialogue "would weaken both Fatah and Hamas movements' credibility before the Arabs," adding "if we don't get back to dialogue as immediate as possible, all of us will be losers."
Shaath denied reports saying that the Arab League would impose sanctions on the Palestinian party that obstructs the dialogue, adding "but there is an Arab pressure on all parties to resume the dialogue to end the current status of split."
Shaath accused certain figures in both Hamas and Fatah "who don't want the dialogue," adding that "but these voices have no values because Fatah strategy is to strongly support the dialogue."
The Egyptian MENA news agency said on Saturday that Egypt decided to postpone the Palestinian dialogue after Hamas informed Egyptian mediators that it will not show up in the meeting.
The dialogue is put off to an undetermined date until "appropriate climate appears and prospects for the dialogue's success are guaranteed," MENA quoted a high-level source as saying.
Source:Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article