'Hamas, Fatah to stand firm on unity'

Acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas (L) and Hamas Political Bureau Chief Khaled Meshaal (File photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/180332.html

Hamas' Deputy Foreign Minister Ghazi Hamad says major Palestinian factions will hold firm in implementing their recent unity agreement.

“We will try to seriously implement the agreement. We are facing a lot of challenges and obstacles but I think there is a strong will inside Hamas and inside Fatah in order to go forward and to implement, honestly, the agreement of reconciliation,” Hamad told Press TV.

He was making a reference to the April 27 agreement between the two Palestinian main factions, Hamas and Fatah, in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, to set up a transitional unity government and hold elections.

To that end, Hamad said, Hamas and Fatah “will form committees regarding the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), security and other issues.”

The senior Hamas official expressed optimism that “in the future we will see more unity between Palestinian factions in order to work together against the [Israeli] occupation.”

Hamas, which controls Gaza, and Fatah, which rules the West Bank, have been at odds since the Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections in January 2006.

Differences between the rival groups peaked in June 2007 when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in a bid to "foil a coup plot" by some Fatah elements.

Fatah in response sacked the Hamas government and set up a parallel cabinet in Ramallah.