By IANS,
Ramallah : A senior Palestinian official announced that leaders of the Islamic Hamas movement and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party will meet in Cairo Wednesday to finalize the inter-Palestinian reconciliation deal.
Azzam al-Ahmed, Fatah delegation chief to the dialogue with Hamas, told Xinhua that “the meeting in Cairo today had been suddenly decided and it was agreed to be held without any in-advance preparations for it.”
“The two sides were coincidently in Cairo and they agreed to meet later on Wednesday,” said al-Ahmad, adding: “The meeting will debate the implementation of the reconciliation agreement.”
Leaders of Hamas and Fatah signed in Cairo May 4 an Egyptian-brokered reconciliation agreement. However, the two sides failed so far to implement the deal due to deep, substantial differences.
Al-Ahmad said that the meeting will be attended by senior Egyptian officials. The last meeting between the two sides was held on Sep 12 in Lebanon. However, they still disagree on the implementation of the pact, Xinhua reported.
The major differences between the two sides are related to assigning the prime minister of the unity Palestinian government, which will be formed for one year and prepare for the general Palestinian elections.
The presidential elections had not been held since 2005, while the parliamentary elections hadn’t been held since 2006. Both sides are trading accusations that their rule is illegal.
Hamas is ruling the Gaza Strip since June 2007 and President Abbas and his Palestinian National Authority (PNA) are ruling the West Bank. Both had so far failed to unify both territories.