Hamas says no Palestinian elections without Gaza - Yahoo! News

Hamas says no Palestinian elections without Gaza - Yahoo! News: "Hamas says no Palestinian elections without Gaza
AFP


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Wed Sep 2, 12:55 pm ET

GAZA CITY (AFP) – The prime minister of the Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday warned against holding Palestinian elections in the West Bank and not Gaza, saying it would be a 'national crime.'

Hamas and the Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party have for months been struggling to reach a national unity agreement to pave the way for presidential and parliamentary elections early next year.

But several rounds of Egyptian-brokered talks since the start of the year have shown little sign of progress, putting the vote in doubt.

'If Ramallah holds elections in the West Bank and not in Gaza it would be a political and national crime,' Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya told reporters in Gaza, referring to Abbas's West Bank government.

'I hope no one would head to such an election, because it would have difficult consequences for Palestinian unity and the internal divisions.'

He added that 'elections are part of the national agreement and not outside of it,' referring to a future pact that would unite the two main Palestinian movements.

The long-standing conflict between the secular Fatah and the Islamist Hamas climaxed in June 2007 when Hamas seized power in Gaza in a week of bloody clashes, confining Abbas's government to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The two sides have said they hope to meet in Egypt again later this month, but several previous rounds of talks have been delayed."