TUNIS — Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki has decided to postpone a visit to Gaza until the end of March so as not to impede with Palestinian reconciliation efforts, his office announced Sunday. It said the delay to the visit planned for Feb. 9 was agreed at a meeting between Marzouki and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Addis Ababa on the sidelines of an African Union summit. The decision to hold off until the end of March was taken to allow “the reconciliation” to go ahead between Abbas's Fatah movement and the Islamist movement Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip, the office said. Hamas and its rival have been taking tentative steps to restart long-stalled reconciliation efforts, seeking to implement an agreement signed in Cairo in 2011 and intended to lead to new elections. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak last week visited Gaza Strip on a humanitarian visit. The one-day visit was coordinated with Egypt, and the Malaysia delegation entered Gaza via the Rafah border crossing. The Malaysian premier's visit to Gaza broke the Israeli efforts to isolate Hamas. Razak stressed that the Malaysian support for the Palestinian people will continue until they have a Palestinian state with full sovereignty. — Agencies
