Leaders of Islamist movement to meet Abbas to kick-start procedures for reconciliation, after signing deal in Cairo to mend four-year rift.<
snip>
"Leaders of the Islamist Hamas group will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas next week to start work on implementing their Egyptian-brokered reconciliation deal, a senior Hamas official said on Wednesday.
"We will have a meeting with President Abu Mazen
next week, possibly in Cairo to kick-start the procedures for the reconciliation," Hamas deputy leader Moussa Abu Marzouk said in Cairo after the main Palestinian factions ceremonially endorsed the deal, envisaging a unity government and elections.
Abbas opened the ceremony by declaring that the Palestinians were turning a "black page" on the division between Hamas and Fatah, which began after the Islamist movement overthrew the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip in a bloody 2007 coup.
"We announce the good news from Egypt which has always carried its national and historical responsibility toward the Palestinian people. Four black years have affected the interests of Palestinians. Now we meet to assert a unified will," he said.
Abbas downplayed Israeli opposition to the reconciliation as an excuse to "evade a peace deal".
Referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's repeated warning that Abbas must choose between peace with Israel or peace with Hamas, the Palestinian leader declared: "Israel must choose between peace and settlements."
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hamas-and-fatah-plan-to-begin-implementing-unity-pact-next-week-1.359828
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
