Mahmoud Abbas ruled out reconciliation talks with Hamas, denouncing the Islamist group as “putschist assassins.” In his first public remarks since Hamas ousted his Fatah faction from the Gaza Strip last week, the Palestinian Authority president said Wednesday that he was firm in his decision to dissolve the inter-factional coalition government. “There will be no dialogue with those killers, those coup plotters,” Abbas told lawmakers in Ramallah. “I turn to our people in Gaza and tell them, the designs of these putschist assassins have no future.” Hamas has accused Abbas of being party to an Israeli-American “plot” to cut off Gaza from the West Bank and thus make the Palestinian Authority more malleable in peace negotiations. But Abbas denied this. “I stress my rejection of any Israeli attempt to take advantage of this act perpetrated by the coup militias to pave the way for the separation of Gaza and the West Bank,” he said.
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