BICOM

Representatives of Hamas and Fatah said on Sunday that the two main Palestinian factions have reached an agreement paving the way for elections in six months. Azzam Ahmed of Fatah and Fawzi Barhoum of Hamas said the sides agreed that an interim government should be formed by the first week of June and remain in office until elections are held in six months.

The news is likely to be viewed with considerable scepticism within the Palestinian territories and beyond, after the two sides have failed to implement a long series of apparent agreements to establish a unity government and hold elections. The latest announcement comes only three and a half months after a reconciliation agreement was signed in Doha, Qatar, by leaders of the two factions. Since then, however, the implementation of the deal has stalled, primarily due to resistance within Hamas to any compromise on the control over the Gaza Strip. The new agreement is supposed to enable registration of new voters in Gaza, a process blocked by Hamas in recent years.

The Cairo deal comes days after PA President Mahmoud Abbas announced a reshuffling of the Palestinian Authority cabinet last week, which kept Salam Fayyad in place as prime minister. The new cabinet comprises primarily of technocrats. Hamas, meanwhile, is in the midst of secret internal elections that stretch over several months, in which Khaled Meshaal, the external head of the political bureau, is believed to have lost ground to more hard line factions within the Gaza Strip.