Hamas is prepared to begin unconditional talks with Fateh, says Haniyeh's advisor Ahmed Yousuf 

Date: 29 / 06 / 2007 Time: 18:19

Gaza - Ma'an - 

Hamas is prepared to enter into dialogue with Fateh, Ismail Haniyeh's political advisor, Ahmad Yousuf, declared on Friday, although only if there are no conditions attached.

"We, Hamas, are ready to open the door of negotiations with Fateh, without any conditions," Yousuf said. "And in turn, they must also not do so."

"The situation of division must not remain between the two parties."

Yousuf also questioned how and why Fateh members have conducted unconditional negotiations with Israel while insisting on laying down conditions regarding negotiations with Hamas. Such criticism may have been directed at the Palestinian presidency and President Mahmoud Abbas.

Yousuf accused such parties within Fateh of following an external agenda. "The continuation of some members of Fateh to not debate with Hamas assures their determination to help external agendas and not help their own country and people," Yousuf said.

Nevertheless, Yousuf declared that some foreign, Arab and Islamic countries are mediating and trying to make contacts with all involved parties in order find an exit to the current Hamas-Fateh division in the Palestinian territories.

Regarding President Abbas' decision to establish an inquiry into the events in Gaza two weeks ago, Yousuf was accommodating.

"Hamas has already accepted to have a committee investigating what is happening in Gaza," he said. "Hamas will observe the results of the committee. The committee might claim that Fateh apologizes."

"What Hamas has done was not against the Fatah movement," Yousef continued. "It was against an internal trend inside Fatah that was working for the benefit of external agendas. The documents that were found in Gaza, at the security services' locations by Hamas, declare the extent to which Fateh was involved in some Israeli and American trends."

On the basis of these charges, Yousuf declared that Hamas has "saved" the Palestinians from a worse fate.

"Therefore, Hamas saved the situation and saved hundreds of citizens' lives, that could have been lost if Hamas didn't interfere. Those documents uncover the intent to take over more than 10,000 lives," Yousuf said.

Yousef added that some members of the Fatah movement not only knew about Hamas' plans but supported them. "Many Fateh leaders had agreed to Hamas' actions in secret and in public," Yousuf said. "Hani Al-Hassan, the Palestinian president's advisor, assured this fact."

Yousuf also assured that Hamas does not plan to keep control of the Palestinian security services' locations in Gaza. The only reason they stay in them is to secure them from being robbed, he claimed.

He also denied that Hamas members violated the houses or private property of the late Palestinian president, Yasser Arafat, or the current president, Mahmoud Abbas. "Hamas never entered Arafat's house, and what was stolen was mostly restored," Yousuf asserted.

Regarding the issue of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who was captured by Palestinian fighters – including members of Hamas' armed wing – a year ago, Yousuf declared that negotiations over his release, as part of a prisoner exchange deal, are ongoing. He said that some European countries, including Norway, tried to mediate his release but Hamas rejected this mediation, declaring Egypt as the only acceptable mediator.

 

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