Hours after his initial meeting with Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshaal, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said the meeting had a “positive atmosphere” and that the two men had not come to any differences yet in the matter of Palestinian national reconciliation.
President Abbas, center, at a previous meeting in Cairo (Wafa Images).
Nevertheless, both Abbas and Hamas political adviser Yusef Razqeh said the meeting was not merely formal, but dealt with important issues of a Fatah-Hamas unity government.
In a press conference after the Cairo meeting, Abbas said, “We discussed reconciliation in all of its details and we say to you now that we came across no differences with respect to any subject. We want to thank Egypt and Minister Murad Mawafi for his efforts over the past years.”
Abbas said nothing of the actual issues discussed in the meeting or of the reaction of the Israeli government, which continues to withhold $100 million in PA-collected tax revenues from Palestinians. The move, designed to punish Palestinians for membership in UNESCO last month, was upheld in PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet as a means of discouraging steps toward a Hamas-Fatah unity government.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Wednesday that such a government would not receive “even a single cent” of the owed revenues.
PNN - Palestine News Network
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