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Last update - 21:59 15/08/2008
Hamas meets Jordanian official, says frozen ties starting to thaw
By Reuters
Tags: Jordan, Fatah, Haniyeh, Hamas

GAZA - Officials from Hamas have met with a top Jordanian security official to try to patch up ties soured since 2006 by charges that the Islamist Palestinian group was planning to carry out attacks in Jordan.

Hamas' leader in the Gaza Strip Ismail Haniyeh said on Friday that the contacts, involving two Hamas officials and Jordan's intelligence chief, Mohammed al-Thahabi, could help reconcile Hamas with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' secular Fatah faction.

"These are positive developments and a beginning which we hope will succeed. There are great causes and common interests between us in Palestine and our people in Jordan," Haniyeh said during Friday prayers at a Gaza mosque.
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Jordanian sources confirmed that intelligence officials had met members of the Islamist group in recent weeks but gave no details on what was discussed. The sources did not say whether further meetings were planned.

The Hamas official said Jordan was interested in reviving contacts with the group, but did not give further details.

Relations between Hamas and Jordan began deteriorating in 1999 when Jordan forced Hamas leaders to suspend their activities in the Hashemite Kingdom, a move which lead to Hamas' departure.

Relations were further strained in 2006 after Jordan said it uncovered a network of Hamas militants who planned attacks inside Jordan, an accusation Hamas has denied.

Jordan, which signed a peace accord with Israel in 1994, maintains good relations with the United States and the West, and is seen as an important moderate player in regional diplomacy.

In his sermon, Haniyeh also called on Arab states to speed up efforts to end an Israeli-led blockade on Gaza Strip and to play a role in reconciliation talks with Fatah.

"We appeal to them to take a brave and immediate Arab decision to reopen the Rafah crossing [on the border with Egypt] and lift the unjust siege on Gaza. Siege and closure must not continue," Haniyeh said.

Haniyeh said Hamas was "looking forward for a national reconciliation on the basis of no loser and no winner ... a unity that would protect the unity of the people and land".

Reconciliation efforts between Hamas, which seized the Gaza Strip from Abbas' Fatah forces a year ago, have so far failed over the two sides refusal to make concessions.

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