Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Cairo Wednesday to discuss the implementation of a reconciliation pact signed in May, a senior Fatah official said Monday.
In a statement to reporters in Cairo, the head of Fatah's national dialogue delegation, Azzam al-Ahmed, said the meeting between Abbas and Meshaal will be in preparation for a meeting Thursday held by the Palestinian Liberation Organization's interim leadership.
Abbas will chair the PLO meeting, and Meshaal and the general secretaries of other Palestinian factions will attend.
The reconciliation deal, signed by Palestinian political factions in May, had stipulated the formation of an interim PLO leadership until the whole organization is restructured.
The Wednesday meeting will discuss developments in Palestine and how to implement the reconciliation deal, Ahmed said. He predicted a positive outcome from efforts to end division between Palestinian factions.
Ahmed said representatives from Hamas and Fatah also met on Sunday in Cairo, adding that another meeting is slated for Tuesday to discuss the understanding reached by Abbas and Meshaal on 24 November in Cairo.
The Sunday meeting tackled, for the first time, strategy for implementing the reconcilation deal, according to Ahmed. He added that the coming meetings will not deal with the formation of a national unity government, an issue which he said will not be discussed until the new year.
On Sunday, Egypt's state-run MENA news agency quoted Ezzat al-Rashq, a senior Hamas member, as saying that the group is aware that the Palestinian people are not sensing tangible results from the reconcilation deal. He explains that this is because most of the deal's terms have not yet been applied on the ground.
In May, Palestinian factions signed the reconciliation pact in Cairo during an official celebration attended by representatives from other Middle Eastern nations. The agreement aims to end divisions in the Palestinian political community that have lasted almost four years.
The pact’s main terms stipulate the formation of a government of independent figures to prepare for elections and deal with local issues resulting from the former political divisions.
