Cairo, October 14: The head of Fatah’s parliamentary bloc, Azzam al-Ahmad, says that the Egyptian government anticipates a Hamas-Fatah power-sharing agreement will be signed later this month.
“Hamas and Fatah are expected to reply to Egypt’s latest proposal by Thursday, in the form of a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Once the two major Palestinian factions approve the proposal, the remaining factions are
to submit their answers by [October] 20th. The deal will be signed the same day,” al-Ahmad told the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency in a phone interview.
The Fatah official went on to say that his party is considering the proposal, and that the bloc’s Central Committee has signaled a ‘positive attitude’ toward it.
Al-Ahmad said the latest draft of the Egyptian reconciliation document takes into account the work of five official Palestinian committees set up last February to address the main outstanding issues: Reform of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), elections, security, overall reconciliation and the composition of the future Palestinian government.
The rival Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, have long been wrangling with each other over substantial issues which have caused serious divisions.
Tension boiled over in the summer of 2007 when Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from the Fatah faction.
Since then, Hamas has governed the Gaza Strip, while Fatah has continued to control the Israeli-occupied West Bank from Ramallah.
Further complicating the situation, Israel and Egypt – with the Palestinian Authority’s blessings – have both sealed their borders with the Gaza Strip, effectively cutting off the coastal enclave from vital supplies from rest of the world.
In early September, Cairo put forward a new document to reconcile the two sides, after the failure of the previous six rounds of unity talks.
—–Agencies