Meshaal, Abbas meeting date not set

The head of Hamas’s Information Office, Salah Al-Bardawil, said on Wednesday that the date of the meeting between Khaled Meshaal and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas was not yet decided. Al-Bardawil said in a press statement: “So far, no date has been set for the bilateral meeting, which has been talked about a lot," stressing the need to define an agenda before the meeting. "We have not determined the date; because the meeting’s agenda hasn’t been done yet," he explained. "As soon as we set the agenda and as long as there are serious and sincere interests to achieve reconciliation on the basis of national constants, everything will become easy." Al-Bardaweel said: “Unfortunately it seems that they are using the reconciliation as a means to put pressure on both the Israelis and  the Americans to resume the negotiations," adding: "this explains why we  have been hearing  all sorts of statements about reconciliation without implementing anything  on the ground since last September." Regarding the meeting agenda that Hamas suggested, Al-Bardawil said: “The agenda which was suggested by Hamas’s political Bureau’s chairman is compatible with our framework and reflects two aspects: firstly, the implementation of the reconciliation agreement strictly as unequivocally stated.” He continued that the second part is to "review the entire policy in the prior period, specially the security coordination and the deteriorating situation, which the PLO has arrived at”. Al-Bardawil also denied that Hamas was the one that delayed the meeting several times, as claimed by Fateh Leader, Ameen Makbool.