Abbas to meet Assad in Damascus

Talks to focus on Palestinian faction power struggle; Hamas, Fatah express support for unity gov't.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
abbas assad 224.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
abbas assad 224.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to hold talks in Damascus on Sunday with Syrian President Bashar Assad on efforts to end the Fatah-Hamas power struggle. Meanwhile, in a surprise move, one of Abbas's top aides met secretly in Cairo with a number of Hamas leaders. Nabil Amr, the PA ambassador to Egypt who is also a senior advisor to Abbas, met with Mousa Abu Marzouk, the deputy chairman of Hamas's political bureau, and Izzat Risheq, a top Hamas official. The two Hamas officials were part of the Hamas delegation that held talks in Cairo last week with Egyptian Intelligence Chief Gen. Omar Suleiman on ways of ending the Hamas-Fatah dispute. Abdel Salam Haniyeh, the son of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, is reported to have participated in the meeting, the first of its kind in many months. Sources close to the two parties described the meeting as "positive and friendly." But it caught PA officials in Ramallah by surprise. They said the meeting was the result of a "private initiative" by Amr, stressing that Abbas did not authorize anyone to hold secret talks with Hamas. PA officials told The Jerusalem Post that Abbas does not intend to meet with Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal during his short visit to Syria. They did add, however, that Abbas would meet with representatives of other Syrian-based radical Palestinian factions to discuss the latest Egyptian initiative to convene a "national unity" conference in Cairo early next month. Abbas's visit to Damascus comes on the heels of the Hamas delegation's visit to Cairo. Hamas officials described the outcome of the discussions there as "positive" and said they did not rule out holding a meeting with Fatah leaders in the Egyptian capital before the end of the month. According to the officials, Hamas informed the Egyptians that it would support the idea of forming a new PA "unity government" that would prepare for parliamentary and presidential elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Hamas, they added, also supported the idea of "reforming" the Palestinian security forces and expressed its readiness to relinquish control over the Gaza Strip as a first step toward ending the dispute with Fatah. A top PA official in Ramallah said that Abbas would ask Assad to exert pressure on Hamas to display more flexibility in the talks to achieve reconciliation with Fatah. "President Assad is one of the few Arab leaders who has great influence over Hamas and the rest of the Palestinian groups that are based in Syria," the official said. "It's obvious that without pressure on Hamas the Egyptian mediation efforts will fail." The official added that Abbas was "optimistic" regarding the prospects of the success of the Egyptian efforts, pointing out that the PA president was in favor of forming a unity government with Hamas.