BICOM

A meeting of Palestinian factions is expected in Cairo this week to advance implementation of a Palestinian unity agreement. According to a report in Haaretz yesterday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will lead a meeting of various Palestinian factions in Cairo on Thursday. However, the direction of the process remains unclear. According to some reports, Fatah wants to delay the establishment of a unity government until after 26 January, when the Quartet’s proposed four-month timetable for Israel and the Palestinians to make proposals on the final status issues of borders and security will expire. However, according to a report in Al-harq Al-Awsat this morning, Hamas and Fatah have agree to maintain separate governments in Gaza and the West Bank until elections scheduled for May 2012.

It was also reported yesterday that the Gaza based Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh is planning to tour several Arab and Islamic countries, marking the first trip of its kind for the Hamas Prime Minister since his party came into power in 2006. According to Haniyeh’s political advisor, Yusef Rizka, the Hamas prime minister plans to visit various countries including Qatar, Turkey, Bahrain and Tunisia.

Hamas is having to change its network of political alliances in the region in response to the uprising in Syria. The uprising threatens to overthrow the Assad regime which hosts the Hamas political bureau, led by Khaled Meshaal in Damascus. However, the rise of Islamist forces in Arab countries affected by the Arab Spring, especially in Egypt, has created new opportunities for Hamas to improve its standing in the region. Hamas’s goal is to gain international recognition and engagement, without giving in to Quartet demands that it renounce violence, recognise Israel and accept previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements.