ياشاسين آذربايجان - Long live Azerbaijan

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Abbas said if Hamas did not back down on their “subversive acts” and meet the conditions, “dialogue would be pointless.” Power struggle Gaza’s border crossings have emerged as an important issue in the power struggle between Hamas and Abbas, whose authority has been limited to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, home to 2.5 million Palestinians, since Hamas’ takeover of Gaza in June.

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Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has ruled out talking to Hamas unless it meets certain conditions, including previous Gaza border arrangements.

Hamas has said it must have a role in the control of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza.

“There will be no talks with Hamas unless they comply with the conditions we have put forward - to back off their coup, to recognise international legitimacy and to accept new early elections,” Abbas said on Wednesday.

“We cannot accept any new agreements. We adhere to the existing international agreements as concluded between us, the Palestinian Authority (PA), and the other four sides, including Egypt.

The EU said on Monday it would consider sending its border monitors back to the Rafah terminal, provided Israel, Egypt and Abbas all agreed.

Abbas said if Hamas did not back down on their “subversive acts” and meet the conditions, “dialogue would be pointless.”

Power struggle

Gaza’s border crossings have emerged as an important issue in the power struggle between Hamas and Abbas, whose authority has been limited to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, home to 2.5 million Palestinians, since Hamas’ takeover of Gaza in June.

Abbas has proposed taking over all of Gaza’s crossings with Egypt and Israel, seeking strategic footholds in the Hamas-controlled enclave.

But Hamas sees the effort as part of a campaign to limit its power, won in elections in January 2006.

A senior PLO official told Al Jazeera that Abbas suggested the creation of a buffer zone between Rafah and Hamas-controlled Gaza, to allay Israeli objections to the Hamas’ control of the territory.

The official said Israel has so far rejected the idea of restoring any Palestinian control to the region.

Abbas and Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s president, held negotiations in Cairo on Wednesday.

Mubarak also held talks with a Hamas delegation, including Mahmud Zahhar, the former Palestinian foreign minister; Said Siyam, the former interior minister; and Hussam Abu Hashi, a Hamas leader.

In an exclusive interview, Zahhar had told Al Jazeera that the talks would tackle not only the Gaza-Egypt border crossings crisis, but other related issues, including Israel’s blockade on the Gaza Strip and disputes between Hamas and the PA.

Barrier resealed

Egypt is attempting to fashion a compromise between Abbas and Hamas, which holds total control of the Gaza Strip on Egypt’s border.

Egypt increased security around the border town of Rafah on Tuesday, and resealed parts of the barrier destroyed a week ago by Hamas fighters, in an attempt to control the flow of people in and out of the Gaza Strip.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flooded into Egypt during the last week to buy essential supplies previously denied them by an Israeli blockade of the territory.

The flow of Palestinians slowed considerably on Tuesday.

Isolation strategy

Israel has shut its own border with Gaza as part of its campaign to isolate Hamas and counter cross-border rockets fired by fighters.

Under heavy international pressure to ease its cordon, Israel has allowed European-funded fuel to reach Gaza’s main power plant, but the main UN aid agency said its food shipments have been blocked for nearly a week.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said it will run out of canned meat to distribute to impoverished Gazans as early as Wednesday due to the Israeli restrictions.

Tensions along Gaza’s frontier with Egypt flared again on Tuesday when Egyptian forces tried to prevent Palestinian vehicles from driving into Egypt.

Hamas fighters intervened, firing into the air to clear the way for the cars to pass.

They threatened to blast open new holes in the border if Egyptian forces refused to back down.

Egyptian forces strung barbed wire along some of the gaps between two gates leading into the Palestinian territory, while riot police were deployed on roads from Rafah to the border crossings.

A security force of around 20,000 has been deployed in north of the Sinai peninsula since Saturday, an Egyptian source told the AFP news agency.aljazeera

, Voice of a Nation

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