Palestinian president to meet Saudi king

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Abbas, who is seeking to revive reconciliation talks between his Fatah party and the rival Hamas movement, will discuss bilateral relations “in addition to regional and international issues of mutual concern” with the Saudi king, SPA said.

Earlier Thursday Abbas called on Hamas to return to the talks which broke down in November.

“We do not want to get rid of them, they are a part of the Palestinian people, whatever their ideas and vision may be, and however they may differ from ours,” Abbas said while on a visit to the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

“But we want them to find the right way, we will not accept for this nation to remain torn apart. We call and continue to call for national dialogue.”

Abbas recently said that if Hamas did not return to reconciliation talks by the end of the year, he would call snap parliamentary and presidential elections.

Hamas has warned that it would no longer recognise Abbas if he remained in power after his term expired on January 8 and would not allow the holding of new parliamentary polls before they are due in January 2010.

 

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