Palestinian President and Hamas hold ’highly positive’ talks on reconciliation

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and Hamas held positive talks Saturday on a long-elusive reconciliation between the Palestinian president's Fatah party and the Resistance group, both sides said.

Aziz Dweik, the Hamas head of the Palestinian legislature, said the meeting was "highly positive" and that "practical moves on the ground will taken in the coming days" regarding an Abbas visit to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Azzam al-Ahmad, president of Fatah's parliamentary bloc, said without elaborating that "the meeting was indeed positive in spite of some negative statements from the brothers in Hamas about what the president announced."

Last week, Abbas accepted a Hamas invitation to go to Gaza, saying he was prepared to go in a bid to "end the division and form a government of independent national figures to start preparing for presidential, legislative and (Palestinian) National Council elections within six months."