According to the Islamist Turkish daily Zaman, Turkey played an important role in the consensus reached between Hamas and the Palestinian administration. Ankara, which exerted efforts to end the separation between West Bank and Gaza for years, also paid attention not to jump in front of the mediation role of Egypt.
The mediation was primarily conducted by FM Davutoglu who spoke to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on the phone in March, met with Hamas leader Khaled Mash’al in Damascus on April 6. He urged both sides to end the rift between them and to make every effort to unite the Palestinian people, to prevent the Palestinian issue from being ignored by the international community that is now focusing its attention to the uprisings in the region.
The Fethullah Gulen affiliated Zaman blamed Israel for “blocking the peace negotiations since 1993” and wrote that Israelis are now disturbed about the reconciliation between Hamas and the Palestinian administration.
Source: Zaman (Turkey), April 29, 2011
