Hamas: no agreement could be reached without clearing PA prisons

Hamas said on Thursday that no agreement could be reached during the forthcoming round of talks in Cairo slated for the 25 July unless PA prisons are cleared of political detainees first and that the 18th July will be decisive date.

These comments were made after a meeting that ended late Thursday evening between Hamas lawmakers in the West Bank and an Egyptian security delegation to discuss ways of furnishing the atmosphere for talks slated for the end of this month.

Dr. Mahmoud al-Ramahi, secretary of the Palestinian Legislative Council, told PIC on Friday that four core issues were discussed during the meeting with special emphasis on the political prisoners” issue.

He also said that the Hamas MPs who participated in the meeting besides him were Dr. Aziz Dweik, the PLC speaker, Dr. Omar Abdel Razzaq, Samira Halyka and Abdel Rahman Zeidan and that the Egyptian delegation was headed by General Nuhammad Ibrahim.

Dr. Ramahi added that the Egyptian delegation talked about their mission and the Egyptian efforts to reunite the Palestinian factions, adding that the issues discussed during the two hour meeting were: political detainees, elections, the joint reconciliation committee and the rebuilding of security agencies.

He said that the MPs told the Egyptian delegation that what is happening in the West Bank is not an isolated kidnapping of two or three persons, but a systematic attempt to destroy the resistance and Hamas and pointed out that the Israeli occupation with all its power and terroristic tendencies failed to do that and no one else will succeed in such a mission.

The Egyptian delegation was also told that the PA”s actions were in fact making Hamas more popular pointing out that the Beir Zeit university students elections the Islamic Bloc got 20% more votes this year than last year.