RIYADH (AFP) — Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal is discussing the possible renewal of talks between his group and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah faction in Saudi Arabia, an aide said.
Meshaal held talks with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal in Riyadh on Monday which touched on "the issue of resuming an inter-Palestinian dialogue," the aide, who did not want to be named, told AFP.
Saudi Arabia last year brokered a power-sharing deal a year ago which led to a short-lived unity government between the rival Palestinian factions.
Prince Saud and Meshaal also discussed the situation in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, which has been under a punishing Israeli blockade imposed in a bid to halt militant rocket fire.
Israel imposed a lockdown of the impoverished Hamas-run territory on January 17 but began allowing supplies of vital fuel and aid back in five days later amid international concern about a humanitarian crisis.
Saud's talks with Meshaal "were in the context of the kingdom's keenness to achieve Palestinian unity in order to face the dangers and inhuman conditions under which the Palestinians are living," a Saudi official said.
Saudi Arabia brokered the power-sharing agreement in February 2007. But Abbas dismissed a Hamas-led unity government after the Islamist group routed Fatah forces in Gaza last June and he then appointed a new cabinet in the West Bank.
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