Azerbaijan, Baku, 10 April / Trend corr R. Hafizoglu/ The secret negotiations between the Palestine's Islamic Resistance Movement HAMAS and its governing party FATAH are not ruled out, but they are not likely to result in unification of the organizations.
"Media reports that HAMAS and FATH are holding secret negotiations for unification. Palestine's President Mahmoud Abbas stated that he was not negotiating with HAMAS, but the two organizations had achieved agreement on several issues," Israel's DEBKA news portal reported.
"Secret negotiations between HAMAS and FATAH are impossible," Sami Abu-Zahri, the HAMAS Spokesman, said to Trend . "HAMAS's activities are transparent. If we had any intention to unite, we would have officially announced that," he said in a telephonic conversation from Gaza.
Abu-Zahri said that the two organizations cannot unite. "Unification with the organization which pursues a policy contradicting with the interest of Palestinians is out of question," he said.
On 10 April, FATAH was unavailable for interviewing on secret negotiations with HAMAS. "The talks between HAMAS and FATAH does not mean their merging," pro-FATAH expert Isam Mohammad said to Trend . He believes that the unification of HAMAS and FATAH is impossible. "Both movements differ from each other from their ideological and political point of views," said Mohammad, the dean of Islam University of Gaza in a telephone conversation on 10 April.
The political expert did not rule out the secret talks between the two organizations. "The key goal of these meetings serves the common interests of Palestinians. HAMAS is ready for the fair talks and has repeatedly said that. However, a number states and political bodies did not agree to the talks with the organization," he said.
Nasser Laham, the Chief Editor of Palestinian news agency MAAN and political expert also believes that the talks between FATAH and HAMAS should not be taken as their unification. "The key difference between these organizations is that HAMAS is more radical while FATAH demonstrates more liberal policy concerning Israel," Laham said to Trend on a telephone on 10 April from Ramallah.
According to the political expert, the fact that Abbas began political talks with HAMAS is a strong blow to the Palestine-Israel peace talks. "HAMAS is not officially recognized by any state and holding talks between official government body and this organization does not seem convincing," said Laham.