The Tuesday night meeting in the Beach Hotel in Gaza, between the Egyptian delegate and representatives of Hamas did not bring forwards any new positions except clarifying Hamas’ position on the dispute with Fateh over the results of local elections.
Dr. Mahmoud Zahhar, member of Hamas’ political leadership, said that the movement informed the Egyptians of the latest events, and that it is persistent to maintain internal unity among the Palestinian factions, adding that the movement will always use dialogue as a means to solve any conflict.
“Elections represent the choice of our people, the Palestinians want to elect their representatives, and therefore we must solve the conflict which emerged during the second phase of local elections”, Zahhar said.
The statements of Zahhar came during a press conference which was held after midnight following a five-hour meeting between Hamas and the Egyptian delegate.
Dr. Attalla abu al-Siege and Sami abu Zuhri represented Hamas, while the Egyptian side was represented by General Mustafa al-Boheiry and General Mohammad Ibrahim.
Dr. Zahhar said that the meeting took long because the movement presented documents and “proofs” which he said proves that the movement “was not part of any forging of the results, and never accused the Palestinian legal system of forgery”.
“We did not present any solutions or suggestions, this issue was postponed until Wednesday”, Zahhar added.
The movement does not appose a meeting with Fatah; Zahhar said and added that Hamas welcomes such a meeting if it will bring forwards positive results.
Also, Zahhar added that the movement did not discuss the issue of postponing the legislative elections since it believes that the elections should be held on their scheduled time without any delays.
Commenting on Hamas’ approval to repeat the elections in Rafah, Zahhar said that it agreed to this issue in order to avoid any crises among the Palestinians, “but what happened in the courts and other election departments showed that the legal system is facing political and security pressures which make its rulings prearranged, which is rejected by us".
“Only dialogue is the proper solution to end any dispute, during our previous dialogue with president Abbas, we managed to solve issues which were more serious and dangerous than the elections”, Zahhar added.
