CAIRO, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said here on Tuesday that his pan-Arab organization is ready to host Palestinian reconciliation talks, Egypt's state MENA news agency reported.
His remarks came after meeting with Mahmoud al-Zahar, a prominent leader of the Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement in Arab League's Cairo headquarter.
"The Arab League is willing to host any meetings that may contribute to pushing forward the national reconciliation efforts," Moussa told reporters.
"There is no justification for the continued division among Palestinians," he said, stressing the necessity of achieving reconciliation and unifying the Palestinian ranks.
A Hamas delegation led by al-Zahar is visiting Egypt for the first time since former President Hosni Mubarak resigned on Feb. 11.
Al-Zahar affirmed that Hamas insists on resuming the reconciliation process as soon as possible to reach an agreement.
After a meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil el-Arabi earlier Tuesday in Cairo, Al-Zahar said that he expected Egypt will have a positive policy change regarding the Rafah crossing and the siege on Gaza Strip.
He said Hamas and Egypt reached an agreement on all points related to negotiating with Fatah to end inter-Palestinian friction and achieve reconciliation.
"They back us on the reconciliation issue. We agreed on all points, even the practical steps that Hamas and Fatah are going to take in order to reach reconciliation," said al-Zahar.
Al-Zahar said he also discussed with el-Arabi the issues of opening border crossings and providing humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people.
He added an Egyptian viewpoint will be crystalized within the coming few days regarding the Rafah crossing and achieving the Palestinian reconciliation.
"we are going to witness an Egyptian vision on handling the Rafah border crossing and the Palestinian case over the next week or the upcoming days," al-Zahar said.
Egypt's efforts of brokering inter-Palestinian reconciliation talks in the past two years failed to finalize an agreement between the rival Fatah and Hamas groups, partly due to tensions between Mubarak's government and Hamas, who is ruling the Gaza Strip.
The Rafah border crossing with Gaza remains largely closed-off to both goods and people since Egypt shut down the crossing in 2007 after Hamas took over the coastal enclave by routing security forces loyal to Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, but it opens the crossing two days a week for humanitarian cases.
Source: Xinhua.
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-03/30/c_13804003.htm.
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