Masri: Hamas supports reconciliation, has no fear of elections
[ 16/10/2009 - 04:16 PM ]
GAZA, (PIC)-- Palestinian legislator Mushir Al-Masri of Hamas Movement has confirmed Thursday that his Movement was and still is keen to achieve national reconciliation, adding that Egypt could testify for the flexibility shown by Hamas in this regard.
In an interview with Al-Jazeera satellite TV channel, Masri criticized the "poisonous" statements of Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas and his associates in the Muqata'a, saying that the statements reveal no intention of Abbas and his team to achieve national reconciliation, especially after the Goldstone report scandal.
He also stressed that Hamas wants the elections and it doesn’t fear contesting it because it knows the volume of its popularity among the Palestinian people in the homeland and in the diaspora.
"I wonder why Abbas didn’t call for election after his term as PA chief expired, and who gave him the legitimacy to extend for himself away from the duly elected Palestinian parliament", Masri underlined.
But he stressed that the Palestinian national reconciliation must precede the elections because, he said, holding the elections with political harmony among all Palestinian factions would complicate and deepen the Palestinian political rift further.
Moreover, the Hamas official revealed his Movement was searching for the best time to achieve the national reconciliation in order to ensure it would hold and not collapse as previous accords collapsed.
[ 16/10/2009 - 04:16 PM ]
GAZA, (PIC)-- Palestinian legislator Mushir Al-Masri of Hamas Movement has confirmed Thursday that his Movement was and still is keen to achieve national reconciliation, adding that Egypt could testify for the flexibility shown by Hamas in this regard.
In an interview with Al-Jazeera satellite TV channel, Masri criticized the "poisonous" statements of Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas and his associates in the Muqata'a, saying that the statements reveal no intention of Abbas and his team to achieve national reconciliation, especially after the Goldstone report scandal.
He also stressed that Hamas wants the elections and it doesn’t fear contesting it because it knows the volume of its popularity among the Palestinian people in the homeland and in the diaspora.
"I wonder why Abbas didn’t call for election after his term as PA chief expired, and who gave him the legitimacy to extend for himself away from the duly elected Palestinian parliament", Masri underlined.
But he stressed that the Palestinian national reconciliation must precede the elections because, he said, holding the elections with political harmony among all Palestinian factions would complicate and deepen the Palestinian political rift further.
Moreover, the Hamas official revealed his Movement was searching for the best time to achieve the national reconciliation in order to ensure it would hold and not collapse as previous accords collapsed.
Finally, Masri underscored that Hamas navigates for strong and firm national reconciliation that would gain the blessing of all Palestinian factions and could be implemented on the ground, but he pointed out that "the true reconciliation doesn’t intersect with the policy of political arrests and doesn’t intersect with monopolizing the Palestinian political decision".
16/10/2009 Egyptian mediators have delayed their deadline for Hamas to sign a Palestinian unity deal with Fatah after the Islamic resistance group, Hamas, asked for a delay, an Egyptian official said on Friday. "Egypt (will) postpone the signing of this deal at the current time," the official MENA news agency quoted the official as saying.
The announcement came a day after Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party presented a signed copy of the deal on Egypt's deadline, with Hamas saying it wanted an extension and amendments to the deal.
The official cited the "repercussions between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas because of the dispute on handling the Goldstone report," referring to the controversy over a damning UN report on the Gaza war at the turn of the year.
The official did not give a new deadline for wrapping up the deal, which would lead to a general election agreed on by both Fatah and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
Hamas had accused Fatah of "betraying" the Palestinian victims of the conflict after the Palestinian delegation at the UN Human Rights Council agreed to have a vote on the report deferred.
On Thursday, Hamas said it wanted more time to study the reconciliation deal and demanded that it include a clause on the right to resist Israeli occupation. "Hamas has officially asked Egypt to give it two to three days to complete its internal consultations," the Hamas-run government spokesman Taher al-Nunu said.
There were conflicting reports that Hamas would sign the agreement on Saturday, but senior Hamas official Mohammed Nasr said the movement needed more time to decide.
In Gaza, Hamas leader Mahmud Zahar told Al-Jazeera television that his movement distinguished between signing the deal, which he said it was prepared to do, and reconciling with Fatah.
On Thursday, lead Fatah negotiator Azzam al-Ahmed said in Cairo after handing the signed deal to Egyptian mediators that Hamas was looking for excuses to delay reconciliation.
The agreement would also see Hamas and Fatah release political prisoners and reform security services with Egyptian and Arab oversight.
No comments:
Post a Comment