Ismail Haneya, prime minister of sacked Hamas-led Palestinian coalition government, Tuesday expressed his readiness to quit the premier post if such a move could help resume dialogue with President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement.
"If the cost for national dialogue is the (premier) post, we are ready to pay this price," Haneya told a group of local journalists at his office in the Gaza Strip, under control of Hamas, or the Islamic Resistance Movement.
He said the Gaza takeover and the successive crackdown against Hamas people in West Bank by pro-Abbas forces were past events, underscoring that Hamas and Fatah are "key pillars for any Palestinian political regime."
President Abbas dismantled the coalition after the Islamic movement took control of the coastal enclave in bloody fighting in mid June and appointed a new one led by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in the West Bank.
Palestinian security services loyal to Abbas launched a detention campaign against Hamas members and supporters in the West Bank shortly after Gaza takeover.
Hamas had made several overtures to resume internal dialogue with Fatah but were all rejected by Abbas, who is sticking to preconditions for any dialogue, which demand Hamas to evacuate security compounds in Gaza, restore things in Gaza to pre-takeover condition and recognize the Fayyad-led new government.
The international-recognized new government, which includes non-Hamas persons, has left the Islamists cramped in Gaza Strip under Israeli closure of all crossings and under lack of cash.
Haneya reiterated that the US administration doesn't want Fatah to hold talks with Hamas in order to pave the way for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations "and keep exhausting Gaza to weaken Hamas."
He also warned against a US-proposed international peace conference, saying it aims to "embody a decision for striking an Arab or Islamic country."
(Xinhua News Agency August 8, 2007)
