Cairo to host 2nd Palestinian reconciliation meeting Wednesday: Fatah official

An official from Palestinian faction Fatah announced on Monday that a
meeting with rival Palestinian movement Hamas would be held on Wednesday in
Cairo.

Azzam Al-Ahmed, a member of Fatah's central committee, said the Cairo
meeting would discuss the possible resumption of reconciliation efforts from
the same point at which they stalled last July.

Al-Ahmed also stated that, as soon as an understanding was reached on the
resumption of work of the Palestinian Central Electoral Committee,
consultations would begin on the formation of a coalition government under
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

He also asserted that reconciliation talks would include several parallel
committees concerned with issues such as 'public freedoms' and 'community
reconciliation.'

The upcoming reconciliation meeting was announced after last Wednesday's
get-together in Cairo between Abbas and Khaled Meshaal, head of Hamas'
political bureau.

Hamas, for its part, has denied that Wednesday's meeting saw any discussion
of the resistance movements' military wing or Gaza-based security apparatus.

According to London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Fatah has demanded that
Hamas dissolve its armed wings and recognise the National Security Forces as
Palestine's only armed force. The demand, however, was strenuously rejected
by Hamas, the newspaper reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, has criticised last
Wednesday's reconciliation meeting, describing Meshaal as "the head of a
terror organisation."

The revival of talks between Gaza-based Hamas and West Bank-based Fatah
comes within the context of an Egyptian-sponsored unity agreement reached in
April of last year. The main terms of the deal, however, have yet to be
implemented due to ongoing differences over who should head up the proposed
coalition government.

 

 

http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=59790

Abbas and Meshaal in Cairo for talks

 

 

The leaders of Fatah and Hamas are scheduled to meet in Cairo with the Egyptian president in the latest round of reconciliation talks between their long-divided factions.

A spokesman for Mohamed Morsi's office said the Egyptian leader will mediate Wednesday's talks between Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority (PA) president, and Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal.

The two factions signed a reconciliation deal in Cairo in mid-2011, but the main points of the agreement have not been implemented.

Officials from Hamas and Fatah said Wednesday's talks would focus on setting up a unity government, which would pave the way for long-overdue parliamentary and presidential elections.

The parties have been at odds since 2006, when Hamas won a majority of seats in legislative elections. Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007.

Ties have slowly begun to improve, with Hamas recently allowing Fatah to start holding rallies in Gaza, and PA allowing Hamas supporters to do the same in the West Bank, which they control.

It is too early to say whether the modest concessions foreshadow more meaningful political reconciliation.

The Hamas delegation will also meet with Egyptian intelligence officials to discuss the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Egypt negotiated the truce that ended an eight-day Israeli military offensive in November in the Gaza Strip, which left more than 150 Palestinians and six Israelis dead.

This will be the first time Morsi hosts a meeting between the two Palestinian leaders.



http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/01/20131944537289346.html