Egypt News

Mahmoud Abbas Palestinian Authority President

“The security apparatus seized this money from Hamas members in the West Bank which they planned to use to establish a separate security force,” Palestinian Authority spokesman Adnan al-Dumiri told journalists today in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Yesterday, Palestinian Authority said it arrested a Ramallah resident with 3 million euros ($4.2 million). The money was transferred to him by Hamas and linked to plans to assassinate senior Palestinian Authority officials, security sources said yesterday.

Hamas and the Fatah faction that controls the Palestinian Authority are engaged in a power struggle. Hamas ousted troops loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas from the Gaza Strip in June 2007, leaving Abbas in charge of the West Bank.

Egypt has been trying to reconcile the two groups and pave the way for renewed talks with Israel.

“The two rival movements are trading accusations because each side wants to exert more pressure on the other before they sign a reconciliation agreement,” Talal Oukal, a Palestinian political analyst at Gaza’s Al-Azhar University, said by phone.

“If they continue doing this, I believe this will reinforce the current political rift that will lead to a complete isolation of the West Bank from the Gaza Strip.”

Israel has demanded that Abbas crack down on Hamas in the West Bank before it will resume talks. Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the US and the European Union, refuses to recognize Israel or any previous peace agreements signed with it.

A senior Hamas official in Gaza Ayman Taha said in a statement that the money seized in the West Bank was earmarked for “charity organizations that serve the families of the prisoners and children of the martyrs.”

Al Dumiri’s claims were “a poor attempt to uproot the Hamas movement in the West Bank and dismantle the reconciliation dialogue,” he added.

Fatah official Zakaria al-Agha told the Ramallah-based al- Ayyam newspaper today that if the two sides failed to sign a Palestinian reconciliation agreement in Cairo by July 28 it would not be possible to hold Palestinian elections on the scheduled date of Jan. 25.

EGYPT NEWS

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