Yousef Rizqa Gaza – Mohammed Habib      “The implementation of the Palestinian reconciliation has seen a significant slowdown despite optimistic statements frin Fatah and Hamas,” said Yousef Rizqa, the political adviser to Palestinian Prime Minister. The reason, as he tells Arabstoday, is that "the Palestinian Authority (PA), headed by Abu Mazen, still has hopes on negotiations with Israel, which makes it difficult to reach a genuine reconciliation.” “The United States, as its former President Jimmy Carter confirmed, has not exercised any pressure on the Israel to stop the settlement, whether under Bush or Obama,” Rizqa said. "The United States is preoccupied with internal affairs, and therefore will not pay any attention to the Palestinian situation." On his expectations for the future of the relationship between the PA and Israel in light of the current impasse, he predicted: "Israel will exert pressure on the authority in order to force us to return to the endless negotiating.” He also said: "Israel has already begun to exercise pressure: through the threat to withdraw VIP cards which allow the freedom of traveling, which means that the two parties will soon see tension.” Regarding that, Rizqa stressed "the need to take a Palestinian decision on the cessation of negotiations, declaring the failure of this option”. "We have pursued this method for two decades, without achieving tangible results. Israel, however, has gone further," said Rizqa. When asked about the impact of Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's recent tour, Rizqa said it tackled “many topics, including the reconciliation, the reconstruction of Gaza, and concerns of the sector’s citizens particularly with regard to electricity and gas. The Prime Minister of Gaza succesfully requested the Egyptian side to raise the proportion of Egyptian electricity to the sector from 15 megawatts to 50 megawatts." On Haniyeh's intention to start a second tour, Rizqa said: "There are contacts made and dates set to visit some countries, including Qatar. That may be at the beginning of February.” The Israeli escalation in Gaza is "traditional, only to show domestic crisis,” according to Rizqa who stated that it was a "repeated Israeli policy". “Israel now is trying in every possible way to link the Gaza Strip to the tensions taking place in Gulf countries,” he claimed.