A senior negotiator for Fatah said on Tuesday that his movement was no longer asking rivals Hamas to restore the status quo that existed in Gaza Strip before the latter took control in June 2007.
Nabil Shaath, the head of a Fatah delegation to Cairo for talks with Egyptian mediators on a Palestinian reconciliation package, said Fatah was taking a more flexible position. Shaath told Reuters: "We are not calling for this (the reversal of the coup)... We are not asking anybody to apologise. We are not asking anybody to go back to where we were. We want to go forward, not backward."
According to him, Fatah, which continues to control the Palestinian Authority and the West Bank, accepted an Egyptian proposal that the Palestinians form a new "national government of consensus". "It may or may not have people from any of the (Palestinian) organisations but it will have people accepted by the organisations and also accepted by the Arabs and also have international acceptance," he added.
Asked if this meant that Fatah was taking a more flexible position in the talks, Shaath answered: "Yes."
