Deposed Hamas prime minister Ismail Haneya Tuesday said he does not think Egypt's efforts to hold an inter-Palestinian dialogue failed.
"The efforts did not fail," Haneya said. "They were postponed until eliminating some obstacles, basically Ramallah's (Fatah) procedures against Hamas in the West Bank."
Hamas escalated media and public campaigns to defend its supporters in the West Bank who are being chased down by security services loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Hamas boycotted the national Palestinian dialogue which was scheduled to start in Cairo on Nov. 9, protesting the West Bank crackdown.
The dialogue aims at reconciling Hamas and Fatah and ending the consequences of Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza Strip in June 2007.
In addition to the arrests, sources revealed that Hamas withdrew from the dialogue because Egypt did not consider Hamas' reservations on the agenda of the talks. Hamas considered the Egyptian-drafted agenda as strengthening Fatah at the expense of the Islamic movement.
The sources added that Hamas also insisted that Abbas must participate in every session of talks "as a key party in the problem" rather than attending the opening session only.
The sources also said that Cairo was unsatisfied from Hamas' position and was forced to postpone the dialogue after spending six months of arranging for the talks.
However, Hamas reiterates that the Fatah-led clampdown against its supporters was the key obstacle that prevented it from going to the dialogue.
"We can't go to the dialogue while 616 of our supporters are held for politically reasons at the Palestinian National Authority prisons in West Bank," said Fawzi Barhoum, spokesman for the Islamic movement.
Barhoum said Hamas will go to the dialogue after all its prisoners are released, the West Bank-based leaders are allowed totravel to Cairo to attend the dialogue, president Abbas attends all the sessions and Egypt accepts Hamas' notes on the agenda.
Among the reservations that Hamas raised is the Egyptian call for holding early elections to boost the reconciliation. Hamas, which won the parliamentary elections in 2006, has rejected to any proposal neglecting the results of 2006 elections.
Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas leader, said Tuesday that his movement "was not afraid from early elections and will get as much as double victory" compared with the landslide it achieved in 2006.
However, Zahar explained that his movement "doesn't want the new elections to be held according to the American vision which bypasses the results of the honest elections of 2006."
Source:Xinhua
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