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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan | |
| Hamas defies Abbas, proposes talks | |
| 2007-06-20 | |
Hamas rejected on Tuesday President Mahmoud AbbasÂ’s decree outlawing the groupÂ’s Executive Force and said the real Palestinian government was still headed by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. Senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya told reporters in Gaza the Islamist group was ready to hold talks with AbbasÂ’s Fatah faction to try to find common ground.
“Hamas rejects the decision by Abu Mazen (Abbas) to outlaw the Executive Force because his decision contradicts the law,” Hayya said. “The current government of national unity is the legitimate caretaker government and we do not recognise the emergency government.” “The Fatah central committee decided today not to convene any dialogue, or any contact or any meetings with the Hamas movement,” the Fatah committee said in a statement. And in other news: Meanwhile, dozens of Fatah loyalists, including security men, entered Egypt from Gaza overnight fearing they may be targeted by Hamas Islamists, Egyptian security officials said on Tuesday. They said about 70 men were found by border agents on the Egyptian side of the Gaza-Egypt frontier on Monday night, and that some were police officers with their weapons. More than 340 Palestinians have now taken refuge in Egypt since last week’s Hamas takeover of Gaza, while 108 others have returned to Gaza after Hamas agreed to re-admit them provided they left their guns in Egypt, the officials said. Separately, Israel plans to tighten a financial clampdown on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip that would choke off all but humanitarian and basic supplies, senior Israeli and Western officials said on Tuesday. While opening the funding taps to the Western-backed emergency government set up by President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank, Israel and the United States want to isolate Hamas financially, diplomatically and militarily in the Gaza Strip. To that end, two senior Israeli officials said the plan was to bar Palestinian tax funds transferred to Abbas from reaching Gaza to run Hamas-led agencies and pay workers. The Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Israel was discussing with the United States the scope of their Gaza embargo. Israeli and Western officials said humanitarian supplies would not be cut off and may be increased. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called the financial sanctions a “failed policy” and part of a “Zionist-American plot”, adding: “Any siege on the Gaza Strip will beget an explosion in the faces of all of those who took part in imposing the siege.” Palestinian Information Minister Riyad al-Malki said the emergency government knew of no Israeli conditions on the tax funds which Israel collects on the Palestinian Authority’s behalf. “We will not accept any conditions. We determine how we will spend it,” he said. Meanwhile, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday Iran had encouraged Hamas to use violence to take control of the Gaza Strip. “Iran supports non-democratic groups in Palestine, Lebanon and in Iraq and we hold Iran responsible for encouraging Hamas to carry out its coup in Gaza,” senior Palestinian official Yasser Abed Rabbo said. Also, Israeli troops were moving on Tuesday towards the northern Gaza Strip, witnesses and security sources said. | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Hamas rejects the decision by Abu Mazen (Abbas) How does one know which name to use? Is the nom de-muz preferable to the given? More familiar like du instead of Sie? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2007-06-20 13:00 |