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Egypt Pressuring Hamas to Accept Reconciliation with Fatah
(AFP/Telegraph-UK) Adel Zaanoun - After years of largely ignoring the smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border, "Egypt decided to build the steel wall in order to punish Hamas, which irritated Cairo by refusing to sign the reconciliation agreement [with Fatah]," says Emad Gad of Cairo's Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. Until now Egypt has been Hamas' primary diplomatic intermediary and key to its plan to one day permanently reopen the Rafah border crossing, the only Gaza terminal not controlled by Israel. Egypt has said Rafah can only be reopened after Hamas is reconciled with Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement. "We want Palestinian reconciliation because without stopping the internal fighting there will never be a Palestinian state," says Mohammed Bassiouni, a former Egyptian ambassador to Israel. Egypt is not willing to renegotiate the unity deal proposed last autumn, he said. "The ball is in Hamas' court."