US strives to abort Palestinian reconciliation

Khalid Meshaal, the head of Hamas’s political bureau, has accused the United States of trying to foil Palestinian efforts to achieve the national reconciliation by pressuring Mahmoud Abbas not to go ahead with it.

In a press conference he held after meeting Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, in Moscow on Monday, Meshaal reaffirmed Hamas’s readiness to sign the reconciliation paper if its reservations on it were taken into consideration.

He also welcomed any Russian or international role to back the Egyptian efforts in this regard in order to end the Palestinian political rift.

Meanwhile, Meshaal hailed the Russian support for Hamas Movement, adding that it reflected Moscow’s keenness to deal with all essential players in the region.

He also denied suggestions that Moscow lowered its level of relationship with Hamas, highlighting that he met with high-ranking Russian officials including Lavrov and deputy foreign minister Sultanov, which he said was the third meeting since Hamas won the PA legislative elections in 2006.

Furthermore, Meshaal called on the international community to carry out its mandate in rebuilding Gaza Strip, which was devastated by the brutal Zionist war on it last year, saying that the financing for the reconstruction was available and needs only international and Arab mechanisms to facilitate the process.

Lavrov, for his part, pointed out that the meeting with Hamas’s delegation touched on a number of points including enhancing Egypt’s efforts to achieve the Palestinian unity.

Meshaal’s visit to Moscow was in response to an official Russian invitation to the Movement that grabbed broad media attention in that influential country.