Report: Berri has Proposed to Host Inter-Palestinian National Dialogue

Speaker Nabih Berri has proposed to host talks between the Fatah and Hamas movements who remain deeply divided over a meeting of the Palestine National Council (PNC), al-Akhbar daily reported on Thursday.

PNC, a congress representing those in the Palestinian territories and the diaspora, was to take place on September 14-15. But it was postponed to an undetermined date.

The PNC serves as the parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Hamas belongs to neither the PLO nor the 740-member PNC, which has not met since 1996.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri has called on Palestinian factions to boycott the congress, labeling it a "farce,” and causing growing differences with Fatah.

“The parliament's doors are open in case Egypt refuses to host a meeting” between Fatah and Hamas representatives to resolve their differences, Berri has reportedly told several Palestinian officials he met recently.

Hamas officials told al-Akhbar that Berri's invitation is “serious.”

“If we succeed in our dialogue, then that would reflect positively on the security situation in Lebanon's camps, mainly Ain el-Hilweh,” they said.

The impoverished Ain el-Hilweh camp has gained notoriety as a refuge for extremists and fugitives and for the settling of scores between factions.

By long-standing convention, the Lebanese army does not enter the Palestinian refugee camps, leaving the factions themselves to handle security.

More than 450,000 Palestinians are registered in Lebanon with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees.

Most live in squalid conditions in the country's 12 official refugee camps.

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D.A.