On Monday Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would hold disucssions with Prime Minister and senior Hamas leader Ismail Haneya in Gaza over the resumption of talks on forming a national unity government, a Palestinian official said Sunday.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters that Abbas' visit would focus on resuming talks on setting up a coalition government to replace the current Hamas-led grouping. This was agreed by both Fatah and Hamas earlier this month.
Abbas "would make it clear to Hamas that the national unity government needs to meet international demands," Erekat said.
On September 11 Abbas announced that an agreement had been reached with the ruling Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, to form a national coalition government.
However, Hamas said it refused to meet conditions put forward by the Middle East of recognizing Israel, renouncing violence and abiding by previous peace deals when Abbas was attending the UN General Assembly in New York earlier this week.
Officials from Abbas' Fatah movement accused Hamas of "embarrassing the president before the international community" especially after their agreement on forming the national unity government.
After meeting Saturday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, Abbas said efforts with Hamas to form a national unity government had gone "back to zero."
"We and Hamas had agreed on the formation of a national unity government before my US visit," Abbas said. He added he was concerned by tens of Hamas statements that were opposed to the agreement.
Abbas made it clear that he would resume national unity talks when he returned home. "We will return to the negotiating table to see what we can do," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency September 25, 2006)
