Abbas rejects Hamas proposal to form pullout panel

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction turned down a request by Hamas to set up a national committee to monitor Israel's planned pullout from the Gaza Strip.

Last week, Abbas invited Hamas to join his government in order to ensure a smooth transition in the Gaza Strip after the implementation of the Israeli withdrawal.

But several resistance groups, including Hamas, turned down Abbas' invitation, and proposed the national committee proposal as an alternative.

“There will not be a parallel or alternative authority or committee to run Gaza,” Jibril al-Rajoub, a top security adviser to Abbas, said after a meeting in Syria between the Palestinian leader and Hamas' political leader Khaled Meshaal.

“There is a national authority which is responsible for (overseeing) the withdrawal and has the legitimacy to rule the Palestinian people,” Rajoub added.

Before the meeting, the deputy chief of Hamas’ political bureau, Moussa Abu Marzouk, said that the movement wanted a “national committee to handle the issue of the withdrawal” and stressed its rejection to join a “national unity government”.

“We are with national unity both in terms of our policy and practices, but we are not with the government of national unity,” Abu Marzouk said.

Abbas, on a two-day visit to Syria, said that he still hoped Hamas would participate in the government.

Israel, which wants the disarmament of all Palestinian resistance groups, fears that Hamas will try to seize control over the Gaza Strip after it evacuates all Gaza settlements and four enclaves in the northern West Bank.

Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command have also refused to join the Palestinian government.

Hamas said that Abbas' offer is a ploy by the Palestinian Authority to delay the parliamentary elections in which Hamas is poised to win over Abbas’ Fatah movement.

The parliamentary elections, originally scheduled for July 17, are now expected to be held after the implementation of the disengagement plan.

Earlier this year, Hamas won municipal elections in several West Bank and Gaza districts.

Syrian mediation

Abbas, who met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday, has ruled out seeking Syrian mediation with the resistance movement.

“Why mediation? There is no need. We would (only ask for) Assad involvement in matters bigger than this,” he said before the meeting.

However, Assad told Abbas that Syria “reaffirms its willingness to help in conducting more constructive talks that aim at closing ranks and fostering joint work under the umbrella of Palestinian national unity”, the official Syrian Arab News Agency reported.

Israel will evacuate all 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip as well as four other enclaves in the northern West Bank in mid-August.

However, the Jewish state, which captured the territories in defiance of international law since 1967, will keep control of Gaza's land, sea borders and airspace.