Hamas, supporters take hard line

June 21, 2007

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will next week hold their first talks since Hamas routed Abbas's Fatah group in Gaza. An Egyptian official said the two men would meet at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt together with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah. But a Hamas spokesman dismissed the talks, saying they would yield no benefits for Palestinians.