Palestinian girls walk past the green flags of the newly ruling Hamas party (AFP)
GAZA (Reuters) – Palestinian election winner Hamas opened formal talks on Monday with other militant groups in a bid to form a coalition government by early next month, Hamas officials said.
Ahead of a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas leaders started talks in Gaza with leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a key group involved in a more than 5-year-old Palestinian uprising.
Hamas, which became the majority bloc in the Palestinian parliament on Saturday after a January 25 election victory over Abbas’s Fatah faction, was also to huddle with the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Islamic Jihad, a group responsible for several recent suicide bombings in Israel.
Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader, gestures during news conference at his house in Shati refugee camp in Gaza (R)
Aziz Duweik, the new speaker of the Hamas-dominated parliament (AFP)