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Haniyeh gets no promises from Egypt regarding border crossing

January 25, 2017 at 12:29 pm

The deputy leader of the Hamas Political Bureau did not get any promises from Egypt regarding the Rafah Border Crossing being opened, Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar has revealed. Furthermore, during his first meeting with the Egyptian government in three years, Ismail Haniyeh rejected Egypt’s proposal to meet with exiled former Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan in Cairo.

The newspaper reported that Haniyeh attended meetings over two days with a number of officials from various government institutions. He discussed means of Hamas cooperating with the Egyptian government in the future, especially regarding the Palestinian reconciliation that “Egypt wants to achieve quickly.”

According to Egyptian sources quoted by the newspaper, Hamas negotiators stressed that “any concessions made by the movement to speed up the reconciliation and regain PA representation under one leadership, will be greatly appreciated by Egypt.” They added that Dahlan has provided the Egyptians with a vision that will have a positive effect on Gaza in terms of using the crossing for business. This is being seen as an attempt to put pressure on Haniyeh to agree to the meeting.