BICOM

According to a report by the Palestinian Ma’an news agency, Hamas has agreed to join a Palestinian unity government under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority (PA).

The Fatah dominated PA in the West Bank, and the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip have been fierce rivals since a bloody coup by Hamas in Gaza brought an end to a short lived unity government in June 2007. Several unity agreements have been announced over the past two years, including those brokered by Qatar and Egypt, only for the arrangements to later collapse.

However, Ma’an says PA President Mahmoud Abbas recently received phone calls from both Hamas’ chief Khaled Mashaal and from head of the Hamas-run government in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh. Apparently, Mashaal and Haniyeh requested that Hamas join a national unity government for a period of six months, rather than the three years suggested in an agreement reached by the two factions in Doha last year. PA news agency Wafa also says a phone call between Abbas and Mashaal has taken place.

Ma’an suggests Abbas will ask current PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah to head the unity government and that following a meeting of Arab foreign ministers on December 21, Abbas could announce parliamentary and presidential elections which were scheduled to take place in 2009, but have been repeatedly postponed.

Hamas has found itself increasingly isolated in the region over recent months. Having withdrawn support for Syria’s President Assad, Hamas’ relations with its major ally Iran appear to have deteriorated. Meanwhile, the military rulers in Egypt have accused Hamas of aiding Islamist terror organisations in the Sinai region and have closed crossings and smuggling tunnels into the Gaza Strip. A report in today’s London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper claims that Jordan recently refused requests by Mashaal to enter the country to meet Jordanian officials. The report says, “A lot of doors of Arab capitals are closed to Hamas to show solidarity and support for the new Egyptian regime.”