Hamas Refused to Bow and Egypt Cancelled/Delayed Palestinian Talks

Palestinian Unity Talks Delayed after Hamas Boycott

Readers Number : 42

08/11/2008

Palestinian reconciliation talks due to be held in Cairo were called off on Saturday after Hamas announced a boycott in protest at the detention of hundreds of its members by president Mahmud Abbas's security forces.

"They've been cancelled," Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said. Another Egyptian official, who asked not to be named, said the talks "have been delayed to an undetermined date... at the request of Hamas."

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said that "Hamas decided not to attend the dialogue talks in Egypt. We have informed the Egyptian authorities of our decision."

"Our decision was made because president Mahmud Abbas is continuing to weaken the Hamas movement and he has not released any Hamas detainees in the West Bank," he said.

Egyptian intelligence, which had been mediating talks between individual rival Palestinian groups, said in a statement that round-table talks set for Monday were cancelled after Hamas announced its withdrawal. "Hamas told us it would not participate in the dialogue and therefore Egypt delayed talks until an opportunity presents itself," the statement said.

A leading member of the Islamic Jihad delegation in Cairo for the talks, Mohamad al-Hindi, said his delegation was returning to Gaza. "The Islamic Jihad delegation in Cairo is leaving to Gaza because there is no meaning to dialogue without Hamas and Fatah," said al-Hindi. "We expended great efforts in the last moments... Egypt told us that it will continue efforts to remove obstacles and come up with a new date," he added.

Meanwhile, Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina slammed Hamas's decision and blamed the rival movement for being responsible for the talks' failure. "Hamas carries the responsibility for the failure of the Cairo dialogue and the responsibility for losing the opportunity to regain Palestinian unity and stop the division between Palestinians," he said. Abu Rudeina also denied Abbas has arrested Hamas members.

Hamas had already expressed reservations about the plan, which calls for a politically independent transitional government to pave the way for new elections, saying Abbas would get an automatic extension of a term the Islamists insist ends in January.

Abbas insisted his law enforcement forces arrested people who posed a security risk, irrespective of political affiliation. "They are arrested and brought to justice," he said at a joint news conference on Friday with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Hamas Refused to Bow and Egypt May Cancel Palestinian Talks

Egypt May Cancel Palestinian Talks




07/11/2008
The Egyptians may postpone next week's "national reconciliation" conference for the Palestinian factions following threats by Hamas to boycott the gathering, Palestinian Authority officials said Thursday.

The PA officials told Israeli daily The Jerusalem Post that Hamas has informed the Egyptians that the movement has many reservations regarding the Egyptian initiative for solving the crisis between Hamas and Fatah.

They added that Hamas was afraid that the PA would use the conference as a means of pressure on the Islamic resistance movement to end its control over the Gaza Strip. At least six Arab foreign ministers have been invited to the parley, in addition to Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa.

"Hamas is afraid that the conference would force it to accept the Egyptian initiative," said a PA official in Ramallah. "Hamas doesn't like the Egyptian proposals because they want to continue their rule over the Gaza Strip."

The official said that Hamas was also opposed to the idea of deploying an Arab peace-keeping force in the Gaza Strip and bringing forces loyal to PA President Mahmoud Abbas back to the Rafah border crossing.

Earlier this week, Hamas dispatched its top official, Mahmoud Zahar, to Cairo in a last-minute bid to persuade the Egyptians to change some of their proposals. Zahar met with Egyptian Intelligence Chief Gen. Omar Suleiman, who is personally supervising the mediation efforts, but failed to convince him to make the required changes.

During the visit, Zahar also made it clear that Hamas would boycott the planned conference unless Abbas's forces halted their crackdown on Hamas supporters and released all Hamas detainees in the occupied West Bank.

Zahar also demanded that there will be no reference to the truce with Israel during the conference, arguing that this was an Israeli-Palestinian issue and not an internal Palestinian case.

Zahar said Thursday that Hamas may eventually decide to go the conference despite the "many obstacles" that stand in the way of ending the crisis with Fatah.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum accused Abbas of lying when he announced that the PA was not holding any Hamas men in its prisons in the West Bank.

"The continued arrests [of Hamas members in the West Bank] jeopardize the Egyptian efforts to end the crisis," Barhoum said. "Abbas and his officials in Ramallah are committing a big crime by denying that Hamas members are not being held in their prison cells. This shows that they don't have good intentions."

Yussef Farhat, a top Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, said he was "very pessimistic" regarding the prospects of success of the Cairo conference.

"The Egyptian plan looks as if it were written by Fatah spokesmen," he said. "I would not be exaggerating if I said that the plan is an anti-Hamas initiative. Besides, the Egyptians are trying to impose the plan on all the Palestinian factions, ignoring our reservations and ideas."

Farhat said Hamas was also opposed to the plan because it allows Abbas to remain in power after his term in power expires in January 2009. "What's outrageous is that the Egyptians are treating their plan as if it were a holy book," he added. "They have made it clear to all parties that the plan is final and that they don't want to hear any reservations."


Bardawil: If political arrests continue, dialog won't succeed
[ 06/11/2008 - 09:45 AM ]

Contributed By Lucia

Palestinian local sources reported that the prisoner was subjected to excruciating torture, where PA officers poured a flammable liquid on his limbs especially his legs and then set fire to him, adding that he screamed in pain until he lost consciousness.

KHAN YOUNIS, (PIC)-- Dr. Salah Al-Bardawil, the spokesman for the Hamas parliamentary bloc, stated Wednesday that his Movement would never condone the use of political arrests in the West Bank as a trump card to pressure the Palestinian interlocutors in Cairo, highlighting that if these arrests continue, the dialog with "Israel's collaborators" would never succeed.

In a speech delivered during a massive march held in Khan Younis in protest at the political arrests in the West Bank, Dr. Bardawil strongly castigated the PA security apparatuses for persisting in hunting Palestinian resistance fighters and women, asserting that these acts proved that the PA and Fatah never wanted dialog because they still rely on the Zio-American support.

The angry masses carried banners and chanted slogans condemning PA chief Mahmoud Abbas's security apparatuses for hunting and arresting Palestinian citizens affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad in order to please the Israeli occupation, calling for creating an atmosphere appropriate for the success of the inter-Palestinian dialog to be held in Cairo.

In a serious development, the PA intelligence apparatus in the Junied prison in Nablus transferred prisoner Hasan Marshoud, one of the Islamic Jihad leaders, to the Rafidya hospital after suffering severe burns all over his body. Medical sources described his condition as serious.
Palestinian local sources reported that the prisoner was subjected to excruciating torture, where PA officers poured a flammable liquid on his limbs especially his legs and then set fire to him, adding that he screamed in pain until he lost consciousness.