Hamas leader Meshaal says U.S. obstructs inter-Palestinian unity

Meshaal, who is arriving in Moscow on Monday just over a week after Palestinian National Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, said in an interview with Vremya Novostei that "U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell has been recently implying pressure on Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian officials."

Egypt plays the role of a mediator between the two factions, Hamas and Fatah, which until recently had no direct dialogue.

Meshaal said that Washington is trying to convince Abbas "that if he agrees for the reconciliation with us [Hamas], the United States will stop assisting the Palestinian Authority."

He added that another reason for a standstill in the talks is that the Egypt-brokered text of the agreement between the rival parties was amended without the consent of Hamas.

"There were some provisions in the text, which were amended without our agreement, or were excluded at all," he said.

Meshaal also said that the United States and Russia have strikingly different positions concerning the inter-Palestinian reconciliation.

In early September 2009, Cairo put forward a new document to reconcile the two largest Palestinian factions, which split in June 2007 when Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip and pushed the ruling Fatah movement out of the enclave. The six previous rounds of reconciliation talks resulted in failure.

Armed clashes between Fatah and Hamas came some 18 months after Hamas had won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006. Fatah has renounced violence, while Hamas refuses to recognize Israel and reserves the right to use violence in its struggle to create a Palestinian state, Kazinform cites RIA Novosti. See www.en.rian.ru for full version.