Excluding the killing of two Fatah militiamen – probably by Hamas – what started out as a day where both sides would be exchanging coup accusations, the leader of Hamas, who lives in Damascus, Khaled Meshaal, suggested Friday that the movement should engage in dialogue with the ANP.
He did so at a press conference in Damascus and on the al-Jazeera television network, announcing some positive news for the to negotiate the release of the kidnapped BBC journalist, Alan Johnston who was kidnapped on March 12 in Gaza.
"We blame the international community, which has been silent over Israel’s crimes, the main responsibility for our internal war, but we are ready to assume part of it" said Meshaal on al-Jazeera.
He added, “we respect our brother Mahmoud Abbas and nobody challenges the legitimacy of his position … we are not fighting to control the Authority, we do not want a division of the nation, nor do we have problems with Fatah … nobidy challenges Abbas’s legitimacy because he is an elected president and we intend to collaborate with him in the national interest".
Meshaal also said that the lack of security facilitated the crisis, and that he favors “the Arab sponsorship of a dialogue in the Palestinian national interest”.
Meshaal’s words appear to deflate the military value of Hamas’s victory in Gaza, and suggest that news from western sources highlighting divisions, or the alleged existence of two separate governments in the Palestinian Territories should be re-considered.
“It is a coup against all legality and opposes all Palestinian laws”, however, said Sami Abou Zouhri, Hamas spokesman concerning Mahmoud Abbas’s decision to name the former finance minister Salam Fayyad as head of an emergency government.
“We ask Mahmoud Abbas to review his decision and Salam Fayyad to refuse this illegal nomination” said Zouhri.
Haniyeh had announced an amnesty for all prisoners and the resumption of negotiations for the release of Johnston.
“No dialogue with the coup leaders. What happened in Gaza was a pre-meditated coup” said Ahmed Abderrahman, political adviser to Abbas, who had secured, earlier Thursday, support from the so-called Quartet (EU, USA, UN, and Russia).
Apart from the events, and the impossibility of making reasonable assumptions on what is no doubt happening behind the scenes, it is striking what the Italian news agency ANSA said in a report signed by Safwat al-Kahlout from Gaza:
“The other face of the HAMAS win is also the slow return to normality. This morning in Gaza City, shops opened, as did the market, while thousands gathered in the square to celebrate, Qur’an in hand, their military, political and perhaps even religious win. Perhaps it was not a clash of faith, but nobody wants to renounce dedicating victory to it. Women have returned to the streets taking their children to play again in the dust of the broken sidewalks, the smell of smoke and bombs that still permeates the air. As usual, while Hamas fighters, waving their flags on pick up trucks, or as they sit in their cars, they were handing out chocolates to the children, which melted in their fingers in the 40 deg. heat and mixed with the black left by the war.”
Source: MISNA
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