Official: Abbas and Meshal to meet Saturday in Damascus

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will meet with Hamas' Damascus-based political chief Khaled Meshal in the Syrian capital on Saturday, a senior Palestinian lawmaker who has been mediating between the two said Thursday.

Ziad Abu Amr told Haaretz that there has been a certain amount of progress in talks on the formation of a Palestinian unity government, but there are still disagreements on several issues that must be clarified by the leaders.

The meeting will bring to an end a long period in which the ties between the two were frozen, due to a speech Meshal gave in Syria in which he harshly attacked Abbas.

Militants: Hamas alone holding Shalit
The Army of Islam, one of the three groups responsible for abducting and holding Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, issued a handbill on Wednesday proclaiming that only Hamas was holding Shalit.

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