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Abbas to Meet Qatar Emir, Hamas's Meshaal in Doha Thursday

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will travel to Doha on Wednesday and hold talks the next day with the emir of Qatar and Hamas exiled leader Khaled Meshaal, the Palestinian ambassador in Qatar said.

Abbas's visit to Qatar was initially announced for Monday by Palestinian officials who are in Cairo for indirect talks with Israel on a lasting truce in Gaza.

Abbas will on Thursday discuss separately with Meshaal and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani latest developments in the negotiations in Cairo and "aid and reconstruction" in Gaza, Palestinian ambassador Monir Ghannam told Agence France Presse.

From Doha, Ghannam said Tuesday, Abbas will travel on to Cairo as part of contacts the Palestinian leadership is staging "with all the parties concerned" in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

A new 24-hour ceasefire in Gaza will last until midnight on Tuesday (2100 GMT) under a last minute deal reached in Cairo on Monday night.

Egyptian mediators have been pushing both sides to put a decisive end to weeks of bloodshed in Gaza, which has killed more than 2,000 Palestinians and 67 on the Israeli side.

But few details have emerged of the state of the negotiations given the apparently irreconcilable demands of the two sides.

Source: Agence France Presse


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