By DPA
Ramallah : The Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denied Tuesday it was holding secret talks with the rival Hamas movement in control of Gaza.
“The only way that dialogue can resume is if Hamas restores the situation to the way it was before the bloody coup and apologises to the Palestinian people for its acts,” Fatah spokesman Ahmed Abdul Rahman Fatah told DPA.
He was referring to Hamas’ violent take-over of the Gaza Strip from Abbas’ security forces in mid-June.
A senior Hamas official, Ahmed Yousef, had earlier said the two groups had resumed contact and that Russia was playing a role in the mediation after separate visits to Moscow by Abbas and Hamas leaders.