Fatah doubts Hamas' readiness to sign reconciliation proposal

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement on Thursday raised doubt about Hamas' readiness to accept an Egyptian-drafted proposal for Palestinian reconciliation.

"We don't think that Hamas is ready to sign the reconciliation and it still rejects that because it has a regional agenda not related to the Palestinian situation," said Ameen Maqboul, a member of Fatah's Revolutionary Council.

On Wednesday, Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas leader, said in Gaza that his Islamic movement would sign the Egyptian proposal if Cairo provided guarantees over its implementation.

But Maqboul said that Hamas' demand for guarantees was "a new pretext," stressing that Hamas "should be asked for guarantees to commit itself to the agreement."

After Hamas refused to the Egyptian proposal in October, Cairo suspended the national Palestinian dialogue sessions it hosted since February last year. The dialogue aims at restoring political ties to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the Fatah-ruled West Bank following Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza in June 2007.

Justifying Hamas' rejection of the Egyptian offer, Zahar said that the proposal did not reflect some of the agreements the Palestinian factions had reached in the Cairo-hosted dialogue.

Source: Xinhua