(AFP) - Islamist movement Hamas rejected, Monday, the outcome of a Paris conference on Israeli-Arab peace, labelling the summit "absurd". Spokesman Fawzy Barhoum issued a statement that said, "The Paris conference is a return to the absurd negotiation approach, which lost the rights of the Palestinian people and gave legitimacy to the Zionist entity on Palestinian land."
Barhoum called for the various Palestinian Authority factions to unite on a "national strategy" around the "resistance in defence of our people." Secretary-General Saeb Erekat of the rival Fatah faction welcomed the conference as creating "momentum" towards ending what he called Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.