Riyadh/Ramallah, Jan 3 (DPA) Exiled Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal Sunday said reconciliation talks with rival Palestinian faction Fatah were in the “final stages.”
“We have made great strides towards achieving reconciliation,” Meshaal told reporters after meeting Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal in Saudi Arabia. “We are now in the final stages.”

“There are some points in the reconciliation agreement that have yet to be agreed with the Palestinian Authority and Egypt,” Meshaal said.

Senior Fatah member Azzam al-Ahmed, however, quickly dismissed Meshaal’s statements.

“If Meshaal means what he says, he should go to Egypt and announce his party’s commitment to Palestinian reconciliation,” al-Ahmed was quoted as saying in the West Bank town of Ramallah by the Palestinian Wafa news agency.

Egypt has for months been mediating in the talks between President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction, which controls Palestinian-administered areas of the West Bank, and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.

Al-Ahmed accused Hamas of circulating misinformation and stressed that a reconciliation agreement could not come in stages, but must be agreed as a single package.

Meshaal’s visit to Saudi Arabia comes a week after Abbas visited the kingdom.