Saudi Arabia invited feuding Palestinian leaders for urgent talks the holy city of Mecca and both the Hamas-led Palestinian government and rival faction Fatah said on Sunday they had accepted the invitation. The special offer from Saudi King Abdullah was declared on the third day of fierce clashes between Palestinian gunmen in Gaza Strip in which over 20 people have been killed.
"I invite them all ... for an urgent meeting in brotherly Saudi Arabia at the sacred house of God to discuss disputes in a neutral (atmosphere) without intervention from any other side," the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted Abdullah as saying in an open letter.
"Unless the wise in Palestine put a decisive and immediate end to the dispute ... it would deny the steadfast Palestinian people any hope in ridding itself of the hell of the Zionist occupation and (block) the creation of an independent free state of Palestine," he said.
"What is happening in the land of brotherly Palestine serves only the enemies of the Islamic and Arab nations and puts question marks in the minds of the international community which respects our just (Palestinian) cause."
Abdullah said the invitation was based on an Islamic rule that Muslims must solicit rapprochement if fighting erupts among followers of the faith. "The government and people of Saudi Arabia do not accept to stand silently and watch with deep sorrow and pain as brothers, who share a cause, fight ... our hearts bleed," he said.
"We welcome the invitation by His Majesty King Abdullah and the government appreciates this generous position, which comes in an attempt to resolve Palestinian internal differences," Palestinian Foreign Ministry spokesman Taher An-Nono said.
According to Reuters, a senior Fatah official also said his group welcomed the invitation and was ready to participate in the talks.
