Palestine: President, Hamas' Haniyeh talk on phone

By Eshat Firat

RAMALLAH, Palestine

Palestine’s president and a top official of the Hamas resistance movement have spoken on the phone about healing political divisions in the country, Palestine’s official news agency said on Monday.

According to the Palestine News and Information Agency (WAFA), during his conversation with Hamas’ political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, President Mahmoud Abbas praised the “atmosphere of compromise” in Palestine following a deal between Hamas and Fatah.

Hamas on Sunday announced it had dissolved an administrative committee set up earlier this year in a bid to promote reconciliation with rival Palestinian faction Fatah following unity talks held last week.

In a statement, the Gaza-based resistance group stressed its appreciation for Egyptian efforts to end years of Palestinian political division, calling on the Ramallah-based Palestinian government to “immediately” assume a governing role in the Gaza Strip.

In March, Gaza’s Hamas-run government set up a committee tasked with streamlining administration in the coastal enclave -- a move that drew the ire of Abbas’s Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.

Early last month, Hamas proposed a new reconciliation initiative that included promises to dissolve the committee -- a move Abbas has repeatedly demanded.