Salhi: Factions agree to further UN membership moves

Palestinian People's Party member Bassam Salhi said Saturday that Palestinian factions had agreed to support further moves to gain full membership at the United Nations. Salhi, speaking from Cairo, told Ma'an that during recent reconciliation meetings factions had also agreed to continue popular resistance against Israeli occupation and not to negotiate until all illegal settlement building stops. President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree Thursday to form an elections commission after consensus was reached in Cairo during reconciliation talks, Salhi confirmed. Palestinian factions have been locked in talks in the Egyptian capital over the last week. Fatah and Hamas leaders had met on Sunday and other political parties joined the Egypt-brokered talks last Tuesday. The reconciliation accord aims to unite the parties after Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, a year after winning national elections.