Hawatmeh: Palestinian factions approve a comprehensive simultaneous, total calm in the West Bank and

Tuesday April 01, 2008 16:41 by Manar Jibrin - IMEMC News& agencies

Nayef Hawatmeh, Secretary General of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine affirmed on Tuesday that the truce with Israel should be a simultaneous, total and comprehensive one in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

He added that all of the factions anonymously approve this principle rejecting any separation of the Palsetinians. During a meeting with Omar Suleiman, Egyptian minister of Intelligence in Cairo on Tuesday, the two discussed the Palestinian situation in the wake of last June's Hamas assumption of control over the Gaza Strip aa well as the initiatives to end the Palestinian internal unrest, and the truce with Israel.

In a press conference after their meeting, Hawatmeh noted that the lifting of the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip requires solving the crisis of all of the crossings especially the Rafah crossing which is a Palestinian- Egyptian is crossing without Israel's intervention. This crossing, according to Hawatmeh, should be handed over to the Palestinian Presidency under the supervision of EU and its administration and the approval of the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip on one hand, and the Palestinian Authority on the other. Egyptian minister Omar Suleiman said that his country is exerting great efforts to implement a comprehensive and simultaneous truce with Israel affirming the necessity of overcoming internal fighting between the Fateh and Hamas movements through comprehensive national talks and application of the "Cairo declaration" , "the National Conciliation Document" and the decisions taken by the Arab Ministers of Foreign Affairs in September 2007 and February 2008 stating that this is the only way to reach an agreement concerning the crisis in the Palestinian territories.

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