CAIRO, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Arab League (AL) Chief Ahmed Aboul-Gheit on Monday welcomed recent developments to end Palestinian division and praised the Hamas movement decision to dissolve its administrative committee in the Gaza Strip, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported.
AL spokesman Mahmoud Afifi said both Hamas and Fatah took the correct decision by putting the higher Palestinian interest above personal interests.
He also praised Egypt's efforts to achieve Palestinian reconciliation and end division.
Afifi said ending the Palestinian division would deal a blow to the hard-line Israeli government which uses it as a pretext to delay resolving the Palestinian problem.
Hamas announced in a statement Sunday dissolving its administrative committee in the Gaza Strip and called on the Palestinian consensus government to "carry out its duties immediately in the Gaza Strip and to hold general elections."
The Hamas statement came while a delegation of its leadership, headed by its chief Ismail Haniyeh, and another delegation of Fatah were in Cairo for discussion of efforts to achieve Palestinian reconciliation ending the internal split since mid-2007, when Hamas had violently taken control of the Gaza Strip from Fatah.
