Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is to meet Prime Minister and senior
Hamas leader Ismail Haneya later this week over a proposal to hold national
dialogue aimed to achieve unity, a senior official announced here on Tuesday.
Secretary general of the Hamas-led cabinet Mohammed Awad said that the coming
meeting would focus on holding inter-Palestinian talks which would be
participated by all Palestinian factions.
Abbas and Haneya will set a date for the dialogue aimed to achieve national
unity and deal with the current difficulties,Awad told local radio the "Voice of
Palestine."
Defeating the long dominant Fatah movement led by President Abbas in the
January legislative elections, Hamas single-handedly set up a new government
after other factions including Fatah refused to join.
The new cabinet consisting of Hamas members and several independents took
office on March 29 and is currently facing a stringent financial shortage and
political isolation.
In mid April, Prime Minister and senior Hamas leader Ismail Haneya reached
out to other Palestinian factions, proposing talks toward forming a governing
coalition in the face of internal and external pressures.
Hamas, or the Islamic Resistance Movement, has been sworn to Israel's
destruction and rejected Abbas' calls to open peace talks with Israel and honor
previous Palestinian-Israeli deals.