Palestinian factions to hold direct talks in mid-June
Afp, Cairo
Palestinian factions are to hold direct talks in Cairo later this month to shore up a more than two-week-old ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the Hamas movement of prime minister Ismail Haniya said yesterday. "A broad dialogue involving all of the Palestinian factions will be held in Cairo in mid-June," the Islamist group's spokesman Ayman Taha said after two days of talks with Egyptian mediators. "We have agreed on the continuation of the ceasefire and on the implementation of the agreements reached between Hamas and Fatah as well as on restoring confidence between the two factions," Taha said. More than 50 people were killed in fighting in Gaza between Hamas and the secular Fatah faction of president Mahmud Abbas before the ceasefire went into effect on May 16. Taha said agreement had also been reached on "restructuring the Palestinian security forces on the basis of citizenship and not on the basis of party affiliation." The mainstream security forces under the control of Abbas are dominated by Fatah loyalists but the then-Hamas controlled interior ministry established a paramilitary Executive Force under its own command last year. Taha said the question of a truce with Israel had also been discussed but would be left for talks between Abbas and Haniya themselves. "We told Egyptian officials that we have no problem with Fatah, only with a putschist element within its ranks that wants to enflame the situation," he said.
|