BICOM

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal are scheduled to hold another meeting in Cairo on 23 February to discuss the formation of a Palestinian unity government, Azzam al-Ahmed, a top Fatah official, said on Wednesday. Ahmed added he was unaware of plans for the meeting to take place in Gaza or for Abbas to visit the Strip this month, which had been widely reported in the Arab media.

Yesterday the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper claimed that Abbas would visit the Strip later this month together with Meshaal, within the framework of a “broader” reconciliation agreement that was signed two weeks ago in Qatar.

The paper quoted Palestinian sources as saying that the new agreement would also “pave the way for the resumption of negotiations with Israel.” The sources added that Israel had agreed to release 40 Palestinians who had been arrested before the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 and an additional 1,000 prisoners as part of a series of concessions to encourage the PA to return to direct talks.

Senior Fatah officials have denied the report. However, one Fatah official, Nabil Sha’ath, noted that a high-level delegation from his faction was planning to visit the Gaza Strip soon to discuss the implementation of the reconciliation deal. Sha’ath added that the Fatah-Hamas talks in Gaza would focus on preparations for holding presidential and parliamentary elections, which were originally scheduled to be held in May this year.