Egypt has invited the Palestinian rivals Hamas and Fatah to meet in Cairo on November 9 for talks aimed at restoring Palestinian unity."We received yesterday a draft of the Egyptian vision for Palestinian reconciliation which includes a call for a full Palestinian dialogue in November," Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said on Monday. "Hamas has no problem in attending [such a meeting] and we were the first to call for Palestinian-Palestinian talks to end the internal conflict," Barhoum said.
The two main Palestinian movements have been bitterly divided since Hamas seized full control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, pushing out security forces loyal to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and Fatah leader.
Dr Abdallah Abdallah, a member of the Palestinian parliament for Fatah, told Al Jazeera: "The Egyptian government has submitted its invitation to all thirteen Palestinian factions."
He did not confirm if Fatah would attend the talks.
Usamah Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, told Al Jazeera: "Abu Mazen [Abbas] does not intend to attend direct talks with Hamas and Fatah, or the meeting being held with all the Palestinian factions."
But some members of Hamas will attend this meeting. This draft needs a lot of work to be a good proposal for the Palestinians. It shows that Fatah has a very negative position which will not help the Palestinians reunite themselves," he said.
Presidential term
The divisions between Fatah and Hamas have grown worse in recent weeks amid a disagreement over when Abbas's presidential term ends.
Hamas has said that Abbas, elected in January 2005, will cease to be president once his constitutionally mandated four-year term officially expires on January 8.
Abbas loyalists, citing a Palestinian law, say that presidential and parliamentary elections must be held at the same time, which would extend his term to 2010.
"The Egyptian government has submitted its invitation to all thirteen Palestinian factions," Dr Abdallah Abdallah, a member of the Palestinian parliament for Fatah, told Al Jazeera. Abbas has called for the establishment of a politically independent national unity government to pave the way for elections to be held at an agreed upon time.
Full story here: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/10/20081020171048255908.html
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