Three senior Fatah officials yesterday delivered contradictory remarks about reconciliation with Hamas.
Hamas had previously said that it had finished studying the understandings reached in Doha, Qatar, and is now waiting for Fatah’s reply.
Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported Deputy Secretary of Fatah Central Committee Jibril Al-Rajoub saying: “There will not be any meetings between Fatah and Hamas in Doha or any other place regarding the reconciliation.”
He stressed that the news reported about an imminent meeting between the two sides in Doha is “false”, adding: “I do not think that what both parties reached in Doha would lead to a reconciliation. Hamas has not yet changed.”
Al-Rajoub claimed that Hamas has always delivered contradictory remarks, saying this would not end the internal division. He threatened to take “decisive measures” against Hamas in Gaza.
Later, senior Fatah official Ahmed Majdalani told media that there would be meetings between Fatah and Hamas in Doha before the end of February.
He denied Al-Rajoub’s comments stressing that the preparations for the meetings are ongoing. He also denied that Fatah is planning to crackdown on Hamas’s rule in Gaza.
Fatah Central Committee member in charge of the reconciliation file Azzam Al-Ahmad hinted that there would never be meetings between his movement and Hamas in Doha.
Safa news agency reported that after his meeting with the Egyptian foreign minister in Cairo, Al-Ahmad said Palestinian factions wanted to continue to have Egypt playing host to any reconciliation talks.
“We are sticking to what we have agreed on in Cairo and we are still sticking to the Egyptian patronage of the reconciliation talks,” he said.