Abbas explores Hamas position in talks with Assad

By Wafa Amr

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas travelled to Syria on Sunday looking for insight on his Islamist rivals' attitudes to reconciliation -- but he had no plans to meet the Hamas leader in person while in Damascus.

Palestinian officials said Abbas's two-day visit to Damascus, where Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal lives in exile, would focus on discussions of Arab efforts to help end the rift between Hamas and Abbas's Fatah movement following the Islamists' violent takeover of the Gaza Strip a year ago.

Abbas would discuss the issues with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but, senior Abbas aide Yasser Abed Rabbo told Reuters, "President Abbas will not meet Meshaal in Damascus or anywhere else before Hamas commits to end its coup in Gaza."

Palestinian officials said the gaps between Hamas on the one hand and Fatah and other factions of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) on the other were still wide, three weeks after Abbas, who heads the Palestinian Authority, made a public call for a national dialogue to end Hamas's control over Gaza.

A senior member of the PLO committee preparing for national dialogue, Saleh Rafat, said Abbas was trying to explore Hamas's positions through Arab mediators before Egypt can call for a direct dialogue to end the rift between the West Bank and Gaza.

"President Abbas has discussed with the Arabs, and will discuss with Assad, whether Hamas is ready to hand over Palestinian Authority institutions to an Arab League committee and Arab security experts, whether it would implement the Yemeni initiative by forming a new government of technocrats and hold early elections," Rafat said.

Abbas called for dialogue to implement a Yemeni initiative for reconciliation that calls on Hamas to end what Abbas refers to as a "coup" in Gaza, and form a new government that would prepare for early presidential and parliamentary elections.

Hamas has said it wants a dialogue with Fatah only and insists on talks without any preconditions.