Hamas welcomes Abbas call for talks

Source: alalam, 01-01-2008
GAZA-Hamas has welcomed Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas' declaration that he was ready to engage in talks with the resistance movement but rebuffed any pre-conditions.
Abbas said Monday that he was ready to "open a new page" with Hamas if the movement gave up its control of the Gaza Strip.
Reacting to the declaration, Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan said, "We welcome any dialogue aimed at unifying the Palestinian ranks. But the dialogue should not be accompanied by any conditions."
Abbas said that before talks could start, Hamas needed to accept the Arab initiative, which calls for normalization of relations between Arab states and the "Israeli" occupying regime in exchange for its withdrawal from occupied Arab land.
Hamas does not recognize "Israel".
Addressing Fatah officials gathered to mark 43 years since the secular party first declared itself an armed Palestinian resistance movement, Abbas said, "I call on those who carried out the putsch... to open a new page."
Cooperation between the Palestinians' two main parties should be based "on a partnership in the heart of the fatherland and around the struggle for its liberations", he said.
"No party should supplant another. The putsch and the military edge should not be a part of our vocabulary. Only dialogue should prevail."
But he reiterated that no talks with Hamas can take place unless the Islamic movement give up the control of Gaza.
"I consider this appeal as an initiative in the name of all the Palestinian people," he said.
The "Israeli" occupying regime has warned that it would break off revived talks with the Palestinian