Fatah committee confirms delegate count
Published today (updated) 01/08/2009 21:33
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Bethlehem – Ma'an – Following a meeting to determine the number of delegates
included in this week's sixth conference, the Fatah Central Committee
arrived at a figure: 2,265.
The committee arrived at the figure during a meeting held at the
presidential compound in Ramallah, according to Azzam Al-Ahmad, the head of
the Fatah bloc in Palestine's parliament, the Palestinian Legislative
Council (PLC).
"We increased the number of members who will attend the conference from
1,252 to 2,265," Al-Ahmad said. "The other issue, the main obstacle
[discussed], was [Hamas] not allowing members from Gaza to attend."
The committee also hashed out plans in the event that Hamas never allows
delegates to leave Gaza, Al-Ahmad added. He said Fatah's Revolutionary
Council would wrap up those proposals later in a joint meeting.
Contacts are still being made with countries friendly to the Hamas-backed de
facto government in Gaza. "There are promises from these countries that we
will receive a response by Sunday," Al-Ahmad said. "We hope the response
will be positive so the last round of dialogue [in Cairo] the past month
would not have been in vain."
Nevertheless, Al-Ahmad said the Central Committee confirmed that the
conference would be held on its set date and place, 4-5 August in Bethlehem,
and that it had facilitated the arrival of delegates from abroad at the
Allenby Bridge crossing from Jordan into the West Bank.
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