Mubarak offers to broker talks between Hamas and Fatah - AP

Jan 25, 2008 23:26 Updated Jan 26, 2008 0:13

By Pakinam Amer
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAIRO, Egypt

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak offered on Friday to host talks between rival Palestinian Fatah and Hamas leaders, in an apparent effort to raise his country's role as Mideast peace broker and ease the pressure following Gaza Palestinian influx into Egypt from the Hamas-controlled strip.

In an interview for Saturday's edition of the Egyptian weekly al-Osboa, Mubarak said he wants peace between the Palestinians.

"I want this language of violence to stop," Mubarak was quoted as saying by the state MENA news agency. "Peace could be achieved on the basis of international resolutions and agreements that demand the establishment of Palestinian state."

Hamas appeared eager to accept the offer.

Ayman Taha, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, told the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera TV that Hamas's supreme leader, the Syria-based Khaled Mashaal, was ready to accept Mubarak's invitation to an "unconditional dialogue."

"We as Hamas have nothing against sitting in Egypt for dialogue and to end all our differences with our brothers in Fatah," Taha told Al-Arabiya, another pan-Arab satellite channel.

But Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's representative in Egypt, Nabil Shaath told The Associated Press that Fatah has made no decision on the invitation.

Abbas's position was clear, Shaath said: Fatah was "always ready for dialogue," but what was important was the result of such talks. And a result cannot be achieved "unless Hamas announces its readiness to let go of military control" of Gaza, he said.

Shaath also said Abbas will head to Egypt after meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday and would talk more here about Mubarak's offer.

Mubarak's offer came as Egypt is enduring an influx of hundreds of thousands of Gazans through its border with Gaza Strip since Wednesday, when Hamas members blew up segments of the border wall separating the area from Egypt.

The breach climaxed a week of Gazans' discontent after Israel imposed a blockade on the Strip, stopping shipments of fuel, medicine and food. Israel has also been carrying out air strikes and limited ground operations against Gazan terrorists who are launching attacks on Israel.

Egypt has failed to stem the flow of Gazans or manage the chaotic border situation, despite deploying reinforcement. Egypt has long feared the instability in the Hamas-controlled Gaza could spill over into Egypt, and has been distancing itself from Hamas. The last time Hamas and Fatah met for talks in Cairo was in Feb. 2005.

Earlier this month, Hamas Premier Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza called for talks with Egypt and Fatah, to work out a new shared arrangement for Gaza's border crossings. At the time, Haniyeh suggested Hamas would be prepared to cede some control to the Abbas government in the West Bank.

In Syria Friday, radical Palestinian factions called on the two rival Palestinian groups to begin dialogue and end their power struggle. A statement at the end of the three-day National Palestinian Conference of factions opposed to peace with Israel stressed the need for Palestinians to unite in the face of the worsening Gaza situation, which they ascribed to Israel's siege.

Dialogue is the "only way to solve inter-Palestinian differences," the groups said.

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