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Dubai: Hamas called on Mahmoud Abbas to be "rational" and stay away from politically inflammatory rhetoric after the Palestinian President called for early elections yesterday.
"We will call ... for early legislative and presidential elections and we will not wait for approval from those sitting in Gaza or from those sitting abroad," Abbas told the 115-member Palestinian Central Committee (PCC), a decision-making forum of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
The PCC is scheduled to endorse Abbas's motion today.
Hamas responded by saying the PCC has no power to take decisions. Abbas "is facing a big predicament in the decrees he is planning to issue concerning early elections," Mousa Abu Marzouk, deputy leader of the Hamas politburo, told Gulf News.
He said plans for early polls were "political rhetoric, as they can't be held in the West Bank without involving the Gaza Strip."
Other Hamas officials suggested that forming a new government without conditions was the way out. "Refusing to talk to Hamas proves that [Abbas] is siding with the US and Israel," Musheer Al Masri, head of Hamas bloc in the Parliament, told Gulf News.
Analysts said holding the poll would be difficult if not impossible. "At least 100 days are needed to prepare," political science professor Ali Jarbawi told Gulf News.
Meanwhile, rights groups warned of a looming humanitarian disaster at the Rafah border crossing, where dozens of the 6,000 stranded refugees have fallen ill.
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