GAZA, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- Hamas has welcomed an Egyptian proposal to set up a new non-partisan Palestinian security service, which may pave the way for resolving rival fighting.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said Tuesday he supports the call to form a new security institution based on a "purely Palestinian vision, away from political divisions and quotas."
Such an establishment, he added, should be "for all citizens, away from the ongoing serious discrimination happening now in the security institution."
Minister of Foreign Affairs Mahmoud al-Zahhar, also of Hamas, revealed in a news conference earlier in the day that Egypt has proposed forming a "national army comprising of all Palestinian forces."
The Egyptians have been trying to defuse the growing tension and fighting between Islamic Hamas and nationalist Fatah by proposing different ideas to restore security and to form a national unity government that would end the crippling Western sanctions on the Palestinian territories.
Since the Hamas government was formed following its sweeping victory in the January 2006 elections, the West has withheld economic and financial aid until the Islamic movement recognizes Israel, previous agreements signed with Israel and renounces violence.
Much of the sporadic Hamas-Fatah fighting in recent months, in which dozens have been killed in Gaza, has largely been blamed on the presence of two armed security services -- one belonging to the Hamas-held Interior Ministry and another representing President Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority's security service.
