BICOM

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshaal are scheduled to hold meetings in Cairo today in an attempt to advance Palestinian unity. According to an Egyptian official quoted by AFP, the two will meet separately with the Egyptian intelligence chief, before holding a three-way summit with Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi. However, officials from both factions failed to confirm that Meshaal and Abbas would hold direct talks in Cairo, according to the Palestinian news agency Maan.

There have been numerous unsuccessful attempts to broker a unity agreement between the Fatah dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip, since a bloody coup by Hamas in Gaza that brought an end to a short lived unity government in June 2007. An agreement signed in April 2011 to create a temporary unity government that would pave the way for elections has not been implemented, despite pressure from the Palestinian public to end the internal division. However, the atmosphere between the factions has improved in recent weeks, with Hamas taking the unusual step of allowing Fatah to hold a rally in the Gaza Strip last week.

President Mursi appears to be building on the success of his role in brokering a recent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, with his first direct intervention on the issue of Palestinian unity. He is seen as a natural ally of Hamas, which is a spinoff from the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood, whereas his predecessor Hosni Mubarak was seen as a supporter of Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah.

In a parallel development, US Middle East envoy David Hale met with President Abbas in Ramallah yesterday after meetings with Israel officials.