Al Ashqar: Hamas & Fatah to meet in Cairo

Ismail Al Ashqar member of the Palestinian Legislative Council confirmed that the meeting scheduled to take place in Cairo on Sunday between delegates of Fatah and Hamas will discuss the issue of the leadership of the PLO and the issue of political prisoners and social reconciliation and other pending issues. Al Ashqar explained to Arabstoday that Hamas is careful to keep talks ongoing between them and Fatah and not to link those talks to the previous issue of Palestinian Authority’s President Mahmoud Abbas’s insistence on nominating Fayyad for presidency, which stalled the reconciliation process; as he would like this reconciliation to become a reality. Al Ashqar said that Hamas is not afraid of Israeli threats regarding a potential attack operation on the Strip, as Hamas is ready to stand up to them, but at the same time demanded that the international community do something to restrain this occupation.   On the withdrawal of his movement from the National and Islamic Forces Committee Al Ashqar said that: “the Committee faded and no longer existed after the split, noting that his group tried to re-activate it, but was unsuccessful.” He added that his movement demanded that the Committee include some parties which have become heavy weights in the Palestinian political arena for the development of policies for the work of the Committee; but none of that was done.   “Some appointed themselves as representatives of those political parties and that is something we did not agree on,” Al Ashqar said. He pointed out that those who have done so and spoke in international organizations as a representative of the whole of Palestinian community, are not right.   Finally, Al Ashqar stressed that Hamas works with all parties as it believes in partnership, stressing again that no one should be allowed to speak on other parties’ behalf  - unless he is appointed to do so, neither should he force his opinion on others.