Egypt has invited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to Cairo for negotiations on how to resume stalled inter-Palestinian talks, the government said Wednesday. Palestinian groups have been at a stalemate in unity discussions for over a year since Hamas took complete control of the Gaza Strip in bloody battles with Abbas’ Fatah party. Egypt also announced that it planned to invite other Palestinian factions to Cairo for continued reconciliation discussions between the feuding groups. “The Egyptian leadership spared no efforts to reach a solid ground enabling the launch of an internal national dialogue to end the state of split,” said the Palestinian National Authority’s Ambassador in Cairo, Nabil Amr. Cairo has called for both Hamas and Fatah to end crackdowns against opposition members ahead of the discussions, Amr said. Fatah and Hamas have rounded up opposition supporters in Gaza and the West Bank in recent months, which have caused negotiations to crumble. Hamas arrested hundreds of Fatah supporters in Gaza Friday, which sparked a crackdown in the West Bank by Fatah security forces in what has become a seemingly endless arrest campaign on both sides.
