Palestinian Legislative Council speaker Aziz Dweik says he will meet with the president soon to discuss ways to push forward the paralyzed reconciliation process between Hamas and Fatah. Maan reported
Speaking to Ma'an, Dweik said Tuesday that he and Abbas would exert more efforts to try and resume reconciliation in a few days. "There are friendly feelings between us (Hamas) and our brothers in all factions as well as President Abbas, and so we do not consider boycotting anybody."
Dweik neither confirmed nor affirmed if Hamas would run in municipal elections in the West Bank. "It is too early to talk about these issues, but they will be discussed during our meeting with Abbas."
He added: "A political solution should be thorough and if God wills we will succeed to finalize Palestinian reconciliation and get the PLC to resume functioning."
Commenting on Israel's decision to consider Hamas lawmakers in the West Bank members of a banned organization, Dweik said, "The parliamentarians who represent the Palestinian people are not an organization. We are affiliated neither to Hamas nor to Fatah, and there is nothing called an organization of lawmakers."
He added, "When they were sworn in, our lawmakers pledged to be loyal to the Palestinian people and their cause." Further, he added, Israel has detained hundreds of thousands of Palestinians since the beginning of occupation, "so are those supposed to be considered a terrorist organization? Or is the truth that Israel rejects both the Palestinian people and their representatives?"
For his part, deputy speaker Hasan Khreisha rejected Israeli officials remarks describing Hamas lawmakers as an axis organization. "This is only an attempt to justify more detentions of lawmakers. Israeli forces have shut down lawmakers' offices and telephoned them warning them not to go to their offices."
What we need now, he said, is to reopen offices of the parliamentarians in the West Bank, since legislative elections were sponsored by the Europeans. All factions should ask the president to convene the legislative body, added Khreisha.
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