Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday stuck to his tough conditions for resuming contacts with Hamas, despite attempts by Egypt to bring the rivals together to solve the growing chaos on the Gaza-Egypt border.
In a speech Saturday, Abbas denounced the Hamas takeover of Gaza as a crime and said the Islamic militants must reverse these steps if they want to resume talks with him.
On Friday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had proposed in a newspaper interview that representatives of Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement come to Cairo for talks. Abbas made no mention of that offer, and instead reiterated his plan to have his forces deploy on the Gaza crossings, instead of Hamas. Mubarak's offer came as Egypt endured an influx of hundreds of thousands of Gazans through its border with Gaza Strip since Wednesday, when Hamas militants blew up segments of the border wall separating the area from Egypt.
Hamas on Friday accepted Mubarak's offer to host talks, while Abbas' representative in Egypt, Nabil Shaath, told reporters that Fatah has made no decision on the invitation.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/948240.html