Hamas rejects Abbas to visit Gaza

Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement strongman in Gaza Mahmoud al-Zahar on Saturday rejected the visit of western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the Gaza Strip, ruled by the movement since June 2007.

"This matter (Abbas's visit to Gaza) is completely rejected for security considerations," al-Zahar told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in an interview on Saturday.

Al-Zahar wondered "how could Abu Mazen return (to Gaza) under such security situation? How could he be received? And what effect this visit would have on people who have their sons, their homes destroyed or their salaries stopped?"

Hamas has been ruling the impoverished coastal enclave since it seized control of it in mid June 2007, following weeks of street-fighting with Abbas's security forces and Fatah party militants. Abbas remained in the West Bank and his forces were routed.

Asked about Hamas conditions to let Gaza Fatah party members travel to the West Bank city of Bethlehem to attend the party's sixth General Assembly, al-Zahar said "Fatah has to pay the invoice for its conference success."

"There are hundreds of Hamas members imprisoned in West Bank jails, so if they (Fatah) want to take one step forward, we will also take one step forward too, until we dismantle this issue," said al-Zahar.

He said "it is unreasonable to detain people for no reason and for no right, confiscate their freedom, torture them and kill them and you (Fatah) want in return to let Gaza members of the conference to travel to attend the conference."

Meanwhile, senior Fatah leaders accused Hamas movement in Gaza for seeking to thwart Fatah movement's sixth General Assembly, which is due to be held in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on August 4.

"Hamas conducts political extortion and tries to obstruct the (Fatah) conference. By announcing so, Hamas emphasizes its policies that are based on ruling out the others and fighting the political pluralism," Hussein al-Sheikh, Fatah secretary general, told Xinhua.

Fatah has not held its general conference for nearly 20 years and Abbas had been struggling until he succeeded in setting August4 as the date for the conference which representatives of every Fatah-affiliated sector would attend. However, the timing of the conference comes at the highest of the Hamas-Fatah split.

Egypt has been mediating between the two rival groups to bridge gaps between them. Seven rounds of bilateral dialogue had been held in Cairo between the two groups since March. But so far they had failed to end their feuds and reach a reconciliation agreement that puts an end to the current rift.

"Hamas movement made lots of concessions in its dialogue with Fatah. We approved to our Egyptian brothers that we really wanted to succeed the reconciliation by presenting our visions for agreeing on everything," al-Zahar told BBC, "But Fatah is still clinging to the international Quartet requirements."

Fatah wants Hamas movement to join a unity government that abides by Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)'s commitments, mainly recognizing Israel and the signed interim agreements and denouncing violence. Hamas completely rejected this.

On Saturday, hundreds of Palestinians marched through Gaza city to demand rival factions of Hamas and Fatah to make concessions to reach a national agreement.

The demonstration was organized by the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), which also called for an expansion of the Egyptian-brokered dialogue to involve all factions, not only the Hamas movement and Abbas' Fatah party.

The protestors waved banners calling the Cairo-hosted talks "the dialogue of power-sharing between Hamas and Fatah," signaling an opposition for ignoring the rest of the factions from taking part in the dialogue session.

"Over the past five months, the bilateral dialogue has proved a failure and reach a deadlock," Talal Abu Zarfia, a DFLP official, told Xinhua. "The distance has to be shortened by returning to the comprehensive dialogue," he said.

After the two rival groups' negotiators failed early this month in Cairo to end their differences, Egypt decided to hold another comprehensive round of dialogue on August 25, and will invite the chiefs of all Palestinian factions for signing an agreement.

Al-Zahar claimed that Fatah "wants to strengthen its position in the upcoming dialogue by getting the support of other factions and put pressure on Hamas," stressing that Hamas "say no" to this, and "there are also factions of armed resistance that have completely different views."