By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA, June 9 (Reuters) - The leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip played down on Monday the chances of quick reconciliation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction. "Things are still at the beginning and it may take a long time," said Ismail Haniyeh, whom Abbas dismissed as prime minister of a Hamas-led unity government last June after the Islamist group routed secular Fatah from the Gaza Strip. Abbas's call last week for "a national and comprehensive dialogue" has been welcomed by Haniyeh, though aides to Abbas said there was no change in his demand that Hamas give up control of the Gaza Strip. Haniyeh said any dialogue should be held "without conditions". "There should be no winners and no losers." Haniyeh cited resistance from Israel as a factor that could delay reconciliation. U.S. President George W. Bush is pushing Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to strike a deal on Palestinian statehood this year. But Israel has said it could review its ties with Abbas if he were to mend relations with Hamas, which refuses to renounce violence or recognise the Jewish state. The flurry of debate on relations between Hamas and Abbas's Fatah movement coincided with Palestinian commemorations of the Israeli capture of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967 and the first anniversary of the fighting that saw the Islamists rout Fatah forces in Gaza and take control there. The schism has handicapped Abbas in efforts to negotiate for a Palestinian state in U.S.-sponsored talks with Israel although it also brought an end to Western sanctions on the Fatah-run West Bank after Abbas fired the Hamas-led government. Aides to Abbas say the president wants discussion on the implementation of a recent Yemeni diplomatic initiative which called for Hamas to give up Gaza -- not a debate on mutual concessions. Some analysts saw Abbas's renewal of a call for Arab states to mediate an end to the split between Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank as part of strategy to bolster his position at home in the face of mounting scepticism over the prospects of reaching a deal this year on establishing a Palestinian state. One senior Israeli official said Israel believed Abbas's talk of reconciliation was meant to increase pressure on Israel and the United States to avert a major Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip. (Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Adam Entous; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)
Palestinian youths throw stones at Israeli border police officers during a protest against the construction of Israel's controversial barrier in the West Bank village of Nilleen, near Ramallah, June 4, 2008. ...
