Ankara reportedly asked Egypt to relinquish its exclusive mediation role in discussions between the ruling Fatah movement, headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and the radical Hamas organization, the Web site of Israel's Haaretz newspaper, quoting a report by satellite news network Al Jazeera, said.
Reconciliatory talks between Hamas and Fatah are planned for Aug. 25, but it remains unclear whether they will take place. Tension between Hamas and Fatah is at its peak, as Hamas is refusing to allow Fatah delegates to leave Gaza and travel to a major Fatah conference next week if Abbas does not release hundreds of Hamas detainees in the West Bank, where his Western-backed Palestinian Authority is based.
Abbas has asked Turkey, Russia and Syria to intervene in the dispute, which threatens to derail the convention, and soften Hamas' demands, The Associated Press reported on Monday, quoting a senior Palestinian official.
The Al Jazeera report said the Turkish government made the request to intervene in the Palestinian dispute to Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman. Ankara also sent a message to Abbas stating its willingness to assist. Egypt said Tuesday that the move by Hamas to ban Fatah members in the Gaza Strip from traveling to the key party convention in the West Bank city of Bethlehem was "unacceptable." Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki condemned Hamas' decision as "regrettable."
More than 1,500 delegates, nearly one-third of them from Gaza and the rest from the West Bank and the Palestinian diaspora, are to choose dozens of new leaders and vote for a new political program at Fatah's upcoming convention.
Hamas and Fatah began rounding up each other's supporters when Hamas violently seized control of Gaza in 2007 from Fatah. Worried about a Hamas takeover of his remaining fiefdom in the West Bank, Abbas began cracking down on the group's activists, institutions and funding. About 900 Hamas activists are currently jailed in the West Bank, while more than 200 Fatah supporters in Gaza have to report daily to Hamas offices and spend long hours there in an improvised form of detention, for lack of prison space.
