Former Palestinian rivals affirm new ties in Doha

Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled Meshaal meet for first time after PLO and Hamas agreed on forming a unity government last month.

The Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal meet for talks in Doha on May 5, 2014. Thaer Ghanaim / Reuters

DOHA // Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas held “positive” talks with Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal in Doha Monday in the first meeting since their rival movements signed a surprise unity deal last month.

The meeting began shortly after Mr Abbas held talks with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, a senior Palestinian official told said.

“Abbas and Meshaal held a long meeting this afternoon in Doha to discuss the latest Palestinian developments, including the reconciliation agreement and creating a positive atmosphere in which to achieve it,” a Hamas statement said.

“The meeting was positive, with both leaders expressing a serious willingness to turn over a new leaf, based on national partnership,” it added.

The exiled Hamas chief has been based in Doha for more than two years after leaving his previous base in Damascus because of the Syrian civil war.

The last time the two leaders met face-to-face was in Cairo in January 2013.

Mr Abbas’s Fatah movement, which dominates the Palestine Liberation Organisation, has been locked in years of bitter rivalry with Mr Meshaal’s Hamas since the Islamist movement forcibly took over the Gaza Strip in 2007, confining Mr Abbas’s forces to the West Bank.

Earlier reconciliation efforts have failed, but on April 23, the PLO and Hamas announced a deal under which they would work together to form a new government of political independents.

Hamas said it might incorporate some 3,000 members of the Palestinian Authority’s security forces to help police Gaza on a temporary basis.

“There is a clause addressing the security situation, including... administrative arrangements for 3,000 members of Ramallah’s security apparatus to work as part of Gaza security,” Hamas government secretary Abdel Salam Siyyam said in a statement on Sunday.

He said the move would be for an “interim period,” without saying how long it would be.

News of the April deal provoked an angry response from Israel, which said it would not negotiate with any Palestinian government backed by Hamas, putting the final nail in the coffin of the latest round of US-brokered peace talks.

* Agence France-Presse