by Saud Abu Ramadan
GAZA, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- A senior Islamic Hamas movement official, who is currently in Cairo, called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Thursday to smoothly and gradually transfer power to the Palestinian people and let them choose their future leadership through general elections.
Khalil al-Hayyah, deputy chief of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, told Xinhua in a special telephone interview that Hamas called on Abbas to "rearrange the Palestinian home so that the authority will move smoothly and gradually."
"Even if elections are held, Abbas can compete for the presidency, if he really wants to. This is his natural right," said al-Hayyah, adding "but at the same time, we have to deeply think in all directions, and deeply look for and study all options, mainly in case President Abbas dies or retires, in accordance to the law."
A senior Hamas delegation, headed by the movement's leader Ismail Haniyeh, arrived in Egypt two weeks ago to hold talks with the Egyptian security intelligence officials on internal reconciliation, the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza and other issues.
"Abbas' term or era only ends through elections, but in case Abbas is absent or a vacuum emerges for any other reason, we will never accept that anyone forces our people to choose a leadership. Our people should choose and decide their leadership," said al-Hayyah.
On Feb. 19, Hamas delegation in Cairo expanded, where members of the movement's politburo who were in exile were also called to join the meetings with the Egyptian security intelligence officials. So far, nothing has been unveiled on the exact topics discussed between the two sides.
Al-Hayyah revealed that Hamas had discussed with the Egyptians over U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
According to him, one of the major issues on top of the talks was the reconciliation agreement reached in Cairo last October of handing over power in the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) consensus government, which has not been fully implemented due to differences.
"I believe that the Palestinians need unity and rebuilding the Palestinian establishments," he said, adding "this can only be achieved through the accurate implementation of the reconciliation agreements, mainly forming a unified leadership, which is Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)."
He stressed that after the formation of a unified leadership and reform of the PLO, "the Palestinians will go for presidential and legislative elections. We cannot keep saying that we want to hold the elections and in practice we don't."
Asked if Hamas discussed with the Egyptian side the new U.S. peace plan, better known as the deal of the century Trump intended to present soon, al-Hayyah said "the Egyptian position is so far clear that it will reject the U.S. proposal, which neglects our rights in Jerusalem."
Al-Hayyah denied several media reports claiming that Hamas has been under severe pressure from Cairo to make more concessions to reconciliate with Abbas. "On the contrary, there was no pressure at all, our ties with Egypt are very positive and we always welcome Egypt's role to sponsor our dialogue."
He unveiled that Egypt will send to Gaza a senior security intelligence delegation to resume the implementation of the deal reached in Cairo last October. "We are really eager to achieve reconciliation and hopefully we will be able to complete the implementation of our reconciliation agreements soon."
The Cairo reconciliation deal was partly implemented, mainly including the handover of crossing points to the PNA and the transfer of the government ministries to the government of Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah. However, disagreement still remains on transferring tax collection, employees' salaries and interior security.
Azzam el-Ahmad, head of Fatah delegation to the dialogue with Hamas had earlier stated that Abbas insists that the sanctions he imposed on Hamas and on the Gaza Strip will be lifted only after Hamas fully hand over its power in the Gaza Strip to the PNA. However, Hamas insists that sanctions must be lifted.
"We are fully committed to the accurate implementation of the agreement, we are ready to hand over tax collection to the PNA when it pays the employees salaries in the Gaza Strip, but until now we found no guarantees from PNA that the salaries will be paid when we transfer the taxes to it," said al-Hayyah.
Meanwhile, al-Hayyah denied earlier reports of Israeli media saying that several military leaders of Hamas had joined the movement's delegation in Cairo to discuss prisoners swap with Israel. "I haven't heard anything like that, and most probably, Israel publishes such reports to ease pressure and anger of the captive Israel families."
