By Xinhua
Abu Dhabi : Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday urged Hamas to commit itself to legitimacy in the Gaza Strip, the Emirates News Agency reported.
“If that happened, we will be ready for early elections. … So ar we have not heard any encouraging word from them,” Abbas said in a statement before leaving for Bahrain.
Abbas has repeatedly referred as “coup” last June’s bitter infighting between Hamas militants and Abbas’ Fatah security forces in the Gaza Strip, which ended with a fiasco for Fatah and Hamas’ takeover of the strip.
After the deadly infighting, Abbas sacked the Hamas-led Palestinian government, which was rejected by Hamas. As a result, the geographically-divided Palestinian territories was further politically split — with Hamas ruling the Gaza Strip and Abbas’ Fatah running the West Bank.
Abbas had also said that Hamas must end its control of the Gaza Strip, hand over headquarters and facilities of pro-Abbas security forces and apologize for its “military coup”. Hamas has refused Abbas’ conditions.
On Tuesday, Abbas also indicated in the statement that negotiations with Israel were slow, according to the report.
“We can’t speak about progress in the peace process. … We hope that some progress would take place this year,” he added.
Abbas, who arrived in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, is on a regional tour to discuss with Arab leaders on the prospects for the Middle East peace process and the latest internal Palestinian developments.