GAZA CITY, July 21 (AFP) - Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal contacted both Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and former prime minister Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday urging them to bring an end to the current security chaos, the organisation said.
In an almost unprecendented intervention, the Damascus-based Meshaal told both men in a phone call that intra-Palestinian dialogue was needed to solve the crisis which has seen current premier Ahmed Qorei submit his resignation.
"Khaled Meshaal called brother Yasser Arafat and brother Mahmud Abbas about his worries over the bad situation in the Palestinian territories and he warned about the dangers of this issue for the Palestinian people," Hamas said in a statement.
"He called for inter-Palestinian dialogue to bring about a solution to all the differences between all the Palestinian people and he confirmed that weapons should only be used against the Zionist enemy (Israel)."
Meshaal is the paramount leader of the Islamist movement, whose stronghold is in Gaza and which has been behind the majority of anti-Israeli attacks in the course of the four-year-old Palestinian uprising.
Abbas resigned last September after losing a power struggle with Arafat for control of the myriad security services but he remains a powerful figure within the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
The Palestinian parliament endorsed a damning report of the government`s handling of the security crisis earlier on Wednesday and called on Arafat to accept Qorei`s resignation.
Qorei submitted his resignation over the weekend after an unprecedented spate of kidnappings.
The chaos was underlined by clashes between the security forces and fighters from another militant organisation, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which followed a weekend revamp of the security services.