Hamas accepted on Friday an invitation by Egypt to hold talks with President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction to solve the internal Palestinian rift. "I and all the brothers in the Hamas leadership welcome participating and will seek to make the dialogue a success," Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal told Reuters.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, in an interview to be published on Saturday, invited the two sides to hold talks in Egypt. Arab press reports said Mubarak was seeking to hold what it described as a summit between Meshaal and Abbas in Cairo.
Meshaal said Hamas has not been informed about when the meeting could be held. "We are responding to the Egyptian invitation as we heard about it. The details and any follow-up are up to them," Meshaal said in an interview to al Usbu' magazine.
Regarding the tense situation along Egypt-Gaza border, Meshaal played down any potential for conflict with Egypt and said Hamas would be willing to share control of the main Rafah crossing point with Fatah and the Egyptian authorities. "We thank Egypt and urge it to continue to deal with wisdom with this emergency, brought about by the harsh siege," he said.
"The security concerns of Egyptian officials are understandable and we have said that we are ready to share management of the Rafah crossing," Meshaal said.
