Palestine’s Hamas group has agreed to talks with
rival Fatah movement, to dissolve the Gaza administrative committee and
hold general elections as a way to implement a deal to end their
long-running feud, the group said in a statement on Sunday.
Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas’ Western-backed Palestine Authority, controlled
by Fatah, fought a war with Hamas over Gaza in 2007, which led to Hamas
taking over.
Attempts to reconcile the two and form a power-sharing unity government in Gaza and the West Bank have failed.
Hamas
said in its statement that it agreed to dissolve administration running
Gaza, allow the reconciliation government to carry out its duties in
the territory, to hold elections and enter talks with Fatah.
Egypt
has been brokering talks with Abbas’s Fatah group to implement a deal
signed in 2011 in Cairo with Islamist Hamas to end their dispute and
form an interim government before elections.
With
the prospect of a Middle East peace initiative by a new U.S. Trump
administration more sympathetic to Israel, Abbas has put pressure on
Hamas, including not paying Israel for electricity for Gaza territory
and cutting salaries for civil servants there.
