BICOM

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal are scheduled to meet in Cairo next week. They are expected to discuss the implementation of the Egyptian-brokered reconciliation agreement between the factions and the formation of a Palestinian unity government, according to various media reports. The meeting will be the fourth between Abbas and Mashaal since May 2011, when the factions announced in Cairo an agreement to end the divide between the Fatah dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the Hamas run Gaza Strip.

Despite the agreement, Fatah and Hamas have failed to make progress toward ending their dispute. The two parties have yet to agree on the make-up of a unity government and other issues related to security and elections. A key issue of dispute remains the identity of the interim-prime minister who would head a new unity government. Hamas have refused to accept current PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad, a western educated economist, popular in the West for his state building programme in the West Bank, as head of the proposed unity government. According to Palestinian news reports, Hamas have recently suggested that Ziad Abu Amr, an independent legislator from the Gaza Strip, who is also acceptable to Fatah, head the unity government. Abbas’s decision to push forward the unity agreement and advance the timetable to elections is likely to depend on the outcome of his forthcoming meeting with Arab League ministers, at which he will decide whether or not to continue peace talks with Israel.