PA asks Tunisia president to cancel Gaza visit

"We have warned the Tunisians that the visit would solidify divisions among the Palestinians and undermine Palestinian representation," a PA official in the West Bank city of Ramallah said on condition of anonymity on Saturday. Marzouki's visit is scheduled for next month. 
 
The comments came one day after PA Minister for Religious Affairs Mahmoud Habbash expressed his opposition to the planned visits by world leaders to the Gaza Strip. 
 
"We want to tell all our friends and brothers: Don't try to play the chord of Palestinian division," he said, referring to the Tunisian president's upcoming visit.
 
"Our people have trampled on all those who tried to play the chord of division and dissidence." 
 
He added the Palestinian Authority will counter "any Arab or Muslim leader who goes to the Gaza Strip with the goal of deepening Palestinian divisions." 
 
"Anyone who wants to go to the Gaza Strip to express solidarity with our people should pass through only one gate - that of the PLO, the State of Palestine and its president." 
 
Acting PA chief Mahmoud Abbas also has reportedly sent a letter to Marzouki, asking him not to visit the Gaza Strip.
 
The PA, which fears that such visits would bolster Hamas's stance among Palestinians, condemned the last week visit of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to Gaza, which has been under an Israeli blockade for the past five years. 
 
It also criticized Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani for his last October visit to the besieged enclave. 
 
This is while, rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah agreed in the Egyptian capital Cairo on January 17 to revive their unity deal, stalled for two years, by the end this month. 
 
The Cairo talks came following the January 9 meeting between the acting Palestinian Authority Chief, Mahmoud Abbas from the Fatah party and the Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau, Khaled Meshaal in the Egyptian capital. 
 
In 2011, Hamas and Fatah signed a unity deal, which has not yet been implemented. The agreement was designed to lay the groundwork for the formation of a transitional government ahead of last year's legislative election. But the process was halted. 
 
Hamas and Fatah have been at odds since Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections in January 2006.