Head of Hamas Politburo Khaled Mash'al affirmed yesterday that the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas has reached a dead end, accusing the United States and Israel of intervening and obstructing the possibility of holding any dialogue between the two movements. In a phone interview with AFP, Mash'al said from Damascus: all efforts for reconciliation has reached a dead end because the other side (Fatah) closed all doors and rejected all Palestinian and Arab mediation efforts and even efforts by some Fatah leaders. He explained: What impedes the dialogue is the American and Israeli interferences. Israel threatens President Abbas against holding any dialogue with Hamas and the US Administration exercises direct pressure on all parties in the region to prevent any mediation efforts to gather Hamas and Fatah. He talked about other reasons for the failure of dialogue, such as the position of the PA and the team surrounding the President, accusing them of acting in a manner that has nothing to do with politics or national interest. I am not exaggerating when I say that even countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia which have their well known weight and influence in the region are not listened to by some of the PA leaders towards dialogue. Mash'al condemned the conduct of the government of Salam Fayyad but continued: despite all of this, we cannot see a way out but through dialogue which is the logical solution. He stated: Those who count on the American and Israeli support and those who turn their backs to their own people and to the Arabs and those who close all doors in front of any dialogue with their own people and rush in hasty steps towards the Israelis and those who think that the siege and making the people starve can succeed in crushing Hamas and push it out of the political arena will find out that their heads will bump into the wall and will realize that all their calculations were a mere mirage. Mash'al stated several principles for the success of the dialogue with Fatah. He said: The unity of the West Bank and Gaza Strip; there is no separation between Gaza Strip and the West Bank; unity of the Palestinian political system meaning one authority and one government. It is necessary to respect the Palestinian legitimacy with all its components and we don’t accept to seek false and fake legitimacies through resorting to the PLO institutions. He demanded the restructuring of the Palestinian security services so that they answer to the government and the Minister of Interior and the PA and not to the factions or the warlords and finally to agree on the formation of a strong centralized government to rule in Gaza Strip and the West Bank under the Presidency of the PA President. With regards to the insistence of the President on rejecting any dialogue before Hamas returns Gaza Strip, Mash'al said: We didn’t take Gaza to return it; we defended our legitimacy in front of the team that got financial and arms assistance from America and Israel to execute a coup against the Palestinian legitimacy. Much of the chaos and events that happened in Gaza before the events was encouraged and planned by the warlords.

When asked about the presidential decree on issuing a new elections law to exclude Hamas, Mash'al said there is confusion on this issue; at one time, they said they are preparing for such a law and then they denied. He then wondered: Who can exclude Hamas? America and Israel in the past twenty years could not wipe out Hamas despite all the assassinations, killings and aggression.

In the meantime, the spokesperson for the Executive Force Islam Shahwan affirmed that they are working now on merging the majority of the members of the Executive Force in the Police Apparatus in the framework of the decision of the government to re-arrange and restructure the security services in Gaza Strip. He said the merging of the forces will take place before the end of August and 1,000 elements will remain as a rapid intervention force.

Published at Al Ayyam NewsPaper on August 24, 2007