Egyptian legislator accuses Fatah of derailing Palestinian national dialogue

 

CAIRO, The well-known Egyptian lawmaker MP Mustafa Bakri has accused on Thursday Fatah faction of rejecting the Egyptian initiative of talking face-to-face with Hamas Movement with the aim to end Palestinian political division.

 

“Indeed the conditions set by Fatah faction in this regard aim at marring the dialogue and not to achieve it”, asserted Bakri in press statement he issued over the matter.

 

He added, “After the positive signs shown from Fatah faction on holding the long-awaited meeting with Hamas Movement, we were surprised by a new stand rejecting the talks with Hamas, which disappointed the Palestinian and Arab masses”.

 

Bakri also disclosed that Egyptian officials, particularly Omar Suleiman, the chief of Egypt”s intelligence, had exerted tremendous efforts to reach common grounds between Hamas and Fatah; yet, he added, the statements of [Fatah leader] Azzam Al-Ahmad in which he ruled out one-on-one meeting with Hamas Movement indicates that its was Fatah faction indeed that is not interested to end the Palestinian rift.

 

Moreover, Bakri pointed out that the unsolicited Fatah rejection reveals the faction”s subordination to the Israeli and American demands, explaining, “We know that the USA was on the line, and we know that both the USA and Israel are against any Hamas-Fatah reconciliation because the occupation was the only one benefiting from the Palestinian division”.

 

“I believe that the statements of Ahmad pour into the Israeli interests in keeping the Palestinians divided… I hope Fatah would rethink its stand in this regard because we all expected the inter-Palestinian reconciliation was within sight”, he underlined.

 

Underscoring the importance of the Hamas-Fatah meeting, Bakri emphasized that the meeting would resolve all problems between the two biggest Palestinian factions in the Palestinian arena, confirming, “I Thought it would be Hamas Movement that would put conditions for the meeting, but Hamas expressed readiness for the talks without conditions; and I found out that it was Fatah faction, through Ahmad”s statements, that isn’t interested in healing the Palestinian wound”.