| Submit your comments on this article |
| Middle East |
| Hamas vows to continue talks |
| 2002-08-16 |
| Hamas vowed to continue inter-factional discussions on a united Palestinian leadership despite a Palestinian official's announcement that the talks had failed. "We will continue the negotiations next week, because the talks between us last night did not yield any result," Hamas leader Ismail Abu Shanab told AFP. Shanab is one of the four members of the politburo... International cooperation minister Nabil Shaath told AFP Thursday night that the Palestinians' efforts to hammer out a common strategy towards Israel and agree on a united leadership document had failed because of Hamas. He said Hamas had backed away from articles in the document endorsed by secular nationalist factions, including Fatah, that called for an end to attacks inside Israel and the creation of a state inside the 1967 borders. We knew they were gonna do that... In an interview with Al-Jazeera, another Hamas leader, Abdelaziz Rantissi confirmed the points his group rejected but reacted angrily at Shaath's announcement that the talks were over. They react angrily to everything... "I object to Nabil Shaath's groundless accusations. More than five factions reject some items in this document. However, Nabil Shaath did not mention them," he told Al-Jazeera. Yeah, dammit. You should kill him for that... "Palestinian dialogue has not stopped," he added, as the 13 Palestinian factions, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah looked set to enter a second week of talks on a common strategy. "In fact, the nattering and yapping will probably continue indefinitely so the rubes think we're actually doing something other than killing people..." |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |