BICOM

Representatives of the two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, will reportedly meet again in the Egyptian capital Cairo on Wednesday in order to further efforts at reconciliation.

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshaal met face to face in Cairo last week for the first time in over a year. The meeting was considered a significant sign of rapprochement between the Fatah dominated PA in the West Bank, and the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip, which have been fierce rivals since a bloody coup by Hamas in Gaza that brought an end to a short lived unity government in June 2007. Relations between Fatah and Hamas have visibly warmed over the past several months with both sides permitting the other to hold public rallies in territory under their control.

According to the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram, Azzam Al-Ahmed, a member of Fatah’s central committee said that representatives from the two factions would meet again this week to discuss the resumption of reconciliation efforts that stalled last July. Al-Ahmed reportedly suggested that if the two sides agreed on resuming the work of the Palestinian Central Election Committee, talks might begin on forming a coalition under Abbas’ leadership. However, London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi claims that Hamas has already dismissed Fatah demands that their armed wings be dissolved and recognise the authority of the PA’s official security apparatus.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday criticised the planned talks saying, “Abu Mazen [Abbas] embraces the head of a terrorist organisation that declared only last month that Israel must be wiped off the map…This is not how someone who wants peace behaves.”