Abbas Government Wants to Take Over Gaza Borders

Close aides to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas say they have received backing from Arab governments to take over crossing points and borders in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Egypt. VOA's Jim Teeple reports from Jerusalem.
Aides to Mahmoud Abbas say following ministerial-level talks in Cairo, they have received support from Arab governments to take control of crossing points between the Gaza Strip and Israel, and the border crossing at Rafah between Gaza and Egypt.

Egypt said Monday that it preferred that the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, take control of the breached border between Gaza and Egypt, seeming to exclude Hamas, the Islamist group that took control of Gaza from Mr. Abbas in June. 
The Egyptian foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, told the United States and the European Union that Israel should cooperate with efforts to control border crossings “through the deployment of the Palestinian Authority” and “European Union monitors,” the ministry said in a statement. Mr. Aboul Gheit emphasized that Egypt would “carry out a gradual control of the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip and bring the situation back to an acceptable condition,” the statement said.  
Hamas blew up the Israeli-built wall between Gaza and the Egyptian border early Wednesday after Israel had sealed off Gaza to try to stop rocket and mortar fire into Israel. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have traveled in and out of the northern Sinai, buying food, medicine, consumer goods and livestock.

Hamas said on Sunday it received assurances from Egypt that Cairo has not reached an agreement with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's government that would exclude the Islamist group from running Gaza's border.
 
Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters Egyptian officials had told Hamas that they wanted to work out a new arrangement to manage Gaza's border with Egypt in talks with Hamas and Abbas's secular Fatah faction.

 Abu Zuhri's comments contradicted those made earlier by Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki who said Egypt had already agreed to Abbas taking control of the crossing, excluding Hamas.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas won European and Arab backing on Monday for taking control of Gaza's breached border with Egypt, intensifying his power struggle with the Hamas Islamists who rule the enclave.  
The Rafah border crossing with Egypt has largely been closed since June after Hamas seized control of the territory and the European Union pulled its monitors out of the Gaza Strip. The EU said on Monday it would consider returning them to the crossing.  
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit endorsed Abbas's proposal to deploy his own, Western-trained forces at the crossing along with the EU monitors, though the presence of neither force was imminent, given Hamas's command on the ground.