Abbas to Cairo for talks on Gaza-Palestinian aid

palestine: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will make an unscheduled stop in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials on Monday due to “sudden developments” in talks with Hamas, a Palestinian official said.

The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, quoted Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rdainah as saying the Palestinian president would arrive in Cairo to “follow up the efforts to strengthen the (Gaza) ceasefire and national reconciliation”.

Hamas officials in Cairo are set to meet with Egyptian mediators on Sunday. Abbas will meet Egyptian officials the following day.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the European Union see Palestinian reconciliation as one of the keys to progress towards an end to the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza and towards a possible resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

The main parties are Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, and the Abbas’s Fatah faction, which since June 2007 has controlled only the West Bank. The two sides agree in principle on the idea of a national unity government for the Palestinian Authority, but they disagree on whether Abbas still has a mandate to govern and on whether armed struggle is still a legitimate strategy for dealing with Israel.

They also disagree on the terms for reopening the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt. Abbas wants his forces to resume control there but Hamas opposes that idea.

The news agency said that because of the sudden developments, Abbas’s visit to the Czech Republic on Monday would have to be rescheduled. It was to be the first stop of a tour of European capitals which will now start in Paris.

Ramallah, west Bank, Sunday, Reuters