Tuesday 5 April 2011

Abu Zuhri: Abbas wants no more than formal visit to Gaza

[ 04/04/2011 - 09:59 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri has said that Palestinian de facto president Mahmoud Abbas only wants a formal visit to Gaza, and has no intent on reconciling with Hamas.

Abbas has placed conditions before heading to Gaza for talks of unity government with Hamas after Palestinian premier Ismail Haneyya invited him for talks following popular protests across Palestine demanding an end to the current political split.

Abu Zuhri told Quds Press that Hamas has had a keen interest to provide necessary guarantees ahead of the visit, but Abbas has so far refused to discuss to meet with the party in the Strip.

”We have asked him more than once to send a delegation to Gaza or to any place he wants in order to arrange for the visit. And part of these arrangements are tackling the remaining issues of dispute so the visit would be a culmination of an agreement between the two parties [Fatah and Hamas]. But Abbas wants a formal visit unrelated to actual reconciliation, which is unacceptable. Hamas's decisive position is to first agree and then to welcome everyone.”

He said Abbas has agreed to dispatch a delegation, but it would be a security delegation unrelated to Abbas's visit. ”Abbas only wants to send a security delegation first to arrange technical matters related to the visit, while it is required that he sends a political delegation to discuss necessary issues.”

Separately, Abu Zuhri has condemned the sentences passed against 11 Hamas men who were tried in a military court by the Fatah party which rules the West Bank. Most of those men had been detained in Israeli prisons.

”The Hamas party considers such unjust rulings as an example of the repressive policy of the Fatah party against Hamas and its members in the occupied West Bank. It also is evidence of the Fatah party's bad intentions and lack of credibility concerning reconciliation.”

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