Abbas lashes out at Hamas rivals ahead of Gaza talks

by Samer al-Atrush

CAIRO (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas lashed out at his Hamas rivals on Sunday, as officials from Palestinian groups gathered in Cairo amid hopes of bolstering a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Abbas, at a news conference in Cairo where he was to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday, accused the Islamist movement Hamas of putting Palestinian lives and their hopes for statehood in peril.

Egypt has been mediating a truce after Hamas and Israel announced ceasefires on January 18, ending a devastating 22-day war that killed more than 1,330 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.

"They ... have taken risks with the blood of Palestinians, with their fate, and dreams and aspirations for an independent Palestinian state," Abbas charged after visiting wounded Palestinians.

Abbas also accused Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since routing Fatah forces loyal to him in 2007, of trying to smash the Palestine Liberation Organization and said he rejected talks with any group which did not recognize the PLO.

Khaled Meshaal who heads Hamas's politburo from exile in Damascus said earlier in the week that the PLO had become obsolete and called for "a new, national authority."

His comments were not supported by Hamas-allied militants, who said the PLO should be reformed rather than replaced.

Hamas is not a member of the Palestinian umbrella group, which Egypt founded in 1964 and which Fatah took over in 1968.

"Today they emerge upon us with a destructive project, which we have heard before ... and which has gone to the rubbish bin of history," said Abbas, the Western-backed president of the Palestinian Authority.

"They must admit clearly ... that the PLO is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and after that (there can be) dialogue."

A Hamas delegation is due in Cairo on Monday to join a Gaza team already in Egypt, a Hamas official told AFP.

The team will meet Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman on Tuesday and will "deliver the movement's position on the Egyptian proposal," Mussa Abu Marzuk, deputy head of Hamas's politburo, told AFP.

Abu Marzuk, speaking on the phone from Damascus, said Hamas insisted on an end to the blockade and did not accept Israel's demand for the release of a soldier captured in mid-2006 as a condition for ending the blockade.

Osama Hamdan, Hamas's representative in Lebanon, said Suleiman would inform Hamas of Israel's response to the proposal. "We are coming to hear whether there is a positive Israeli response," he told AFP.

Hamdan said Hamas had told Egypt that its demand for a truce was, "in sum ... ending the siege in exchange for a calm."

"We are waiting for Israel's response ... We have already responded to the Egyptian proposal and we expect we will hear something positive from the Egyptian side," he said.

In a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, both contenders in an upcoming election, voiced disagreement on whether to accept the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Hamas.

"A deal with Hamas would give it legitimacy," Livni's ministry quoted her as telling the cabinet. Barak, meanwhile, said Egyptian mediation was necessary to achieve a calm and to end arms smuggling into Gaza.

Senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath told AFP that Abbas decided to travel to Cairo, calling off a scheduled visit to the Czech Republic, after Egyptian officials relayed "optimistic reports" from meetings with Hamas.

In Jerusalem, a senior defense official told AFP that Israel was demanding an end to fire from Gaza and arms smuggling.

"Israel does not negotiate with Hamas. Israel demands two conditions -- the total cessation of fire and an end to arms smuggling. Israel is only holding talks with Egypt on this issue," he said.

The fragile ceasefire has been tested by rockets fired into Israel by Gaza militants and retaliatory Israeli air strikes.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday warned of "a severe and disproportionate" response to rocket fire. Hours later, planes bombed an empty Palestinian police station in central Gaza, without causing casualties.