GAZA, June 6 (UPI) -- Islamic Jihad refuted Fatah's statement that inter-Palestinian dialogue ended with no results, stressing that the dialogue has not yet begun.
Jihad leader Sheikh Khaled Batesh said Tuesday his group "utterly rejects the suggestion that the dialogue has failed, because it actually has not started yet and Islamic Jihad did not have the chance to say a word or participate in the discussions, except in the opening sessions.
"If the dialogue has failed at a time we were absent as well as Hamas, it means that dialogue -- as far as we are concerned -- has not kicked off yet, since we did say either yes or no on anything," Batesh said.
He charged that Fatah was quick to announce the failure of the national dialogue as if it was stillborn.
"We stress that we need to continue the dialogue because we have not effectively participated in it except in the formal opening meeting," he said.
The development projects deepening of differences pitting Islamic militant groups, especially Hamas, against Fatah, since Hamas won general elections last January and formed the new Palestinian government.
The head of Fatah's bloc in parliament, Azzam Ahmed, announced Monday that the Palestinian national dialogue ended with no results and that President Mahmoud Abbas, of Fatah, will hold a referendum on a national consensus document drafted by key Palestinian prisoners from the various factions held in Israeli jails.
Batesh said Islamic Jihad rejected the proposed referendum and will boycott it.
The document, drawn up by imprisoned officials from Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, stresses the right of Palestinians to self-determination and the creation of their own independent state on the territories captured in 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital.
It also affirms the Palestinian people's right to resistance inside the 1967 territories by all means in parallel to political work, including negotiations.
