Haniyeh to visit Jordan to discuss Hamas-Fatah rift

GAZA, Dec 25 (Reuters) Jordan will host talks between Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah after a surge in factional violence, a Hamas official said today.

Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for the Hamas-led Palestinian government, said Haniyeh had accepted an invitation from Jordan's King Abdullah to attend talks in Amman. A spokesman for Abbas was not immediately available.

Tensions between the ruling Hamas faction and once-dominant Fatah flared after Abbas this month called for early elections, a move Hamas called a ''coup''. Hamas, a militant group sworn to destroy Israel, beat Fatah in a January parliamentary vote.

''The Jordanian prime minister has extended an official invitation from his majesty King Abdullah to Prime Minister Haniyeh to visit Jordan and to meet President Abu Mazen (Abbas) to discuss the latest developments and the issues of difference,'' Hamad said.

''Haniyeh has welcomed the invitation. Arrangements are under way to agree on the date.'' Jordan has also openly expressed support for Abbas, who is backed by the West, and for a renewal of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. But its relations with Hamas have been chilly.

''This is a follow-on his Majesty's initiative to exert all efforts to reinvigorate the peace process and solidify Palestinian national unity ... and explore all options, including hosting a meeting (between Abbas and Haniyeh) when the situation is right,'' a Jordanian government spokesman said.

Haniyeh's visit, which a Palestinian source said could take place this week, would be the first by a Hamas leader to Jordan since 1999, when the kingdom closed the group's Amman offices and expelled its top leaders for alleged illegal activities.

Jordan had cancelled an invitation to Palestinian Foreign Minister and Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar to visit the kingdom soon after Amman said in April it had found arms caches hidden by Hamas activists and weapons smuggled in from Syria.

The militant group has denied involvement. Jordan's state prosecutor in November charged three Hamas militants with plotting to carry out attacks against the kingdom.

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