Fatah says welcomes election of Haniyeh as new Hamas chief

The Fatah movement led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday that it welcomed the election of Ismail Haniyeh as the new chief of Hamas politburo.
"Fatah welcomes electing Haniyeh as the new chief of Hamas," Fatah Party said in an e-mailed press statement.
"Fatah hopes that electing Haniyeh would boost the chances of achieving reconciliation and ending the internal division," it added.
Fatah hopes that Haniyeh's major focus would be placed on the Palestinian internal situation "in order to achieve unity and end internal division," the statement noted.
Earlier on Saturday, Ismail Haniyeh was named as the new chief of Islamic Hamas movement after he won the recent internal elections.
Haniyeh, 54, was born in Gaza's Shatti refugee camp in 1963.
Abdulatif al-Qanou, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said in an e-mailed press statement that Haniyeh replaced Kahled Meshal, the Hamas leader that has been the chief of the movement for eight years.
Hamza Abu Shanab, a pro-Hamas political analyst from Gaza, told Xinhua that electing Haniyeh as the new chief of Hamas "is positive for the movement and for the Palestinian people."
"Electing Haniyeh as the new chief of Hamas means an improvement in Hamas relationship in the region, mainly improving its ties with Iran, and this would lead most probably to improving Hamas ties with Egypt," said Abu Shanab.

source: Xinhua