HAMAS LEADER Khaled Mishaal said yesterday that Egypt hopes to convene a summit of Palestinian factions at the end of next month at which a unity accord will be signed.
Following a meeting with Egypt’s intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, Mr Mishaal said Cairo’s proposal for ending Hamas’s rift with Fatah “is a good basis for Palestinian reconciliation”.
Earlier Hamas spokesmen said the movement has demonstrated a serious commitment to dialogue by dispatching a top team to Cairo. In addition to Mr Mishaal, the head of Hamas’s Damascus-based politburo, the delegation in- cluded his deputy, Mousa Abu Marzouk, and Dr Mahmoud Zahar, chief negotiator of the Hamas-led de facto government in Gaza.
The Egyptian proposal calls for the signing of a reconciliation agreement by the end of October, deployment in Gaza of a 3,000-man security force under the command of Egyptian and Arab officers, formation of a joint committee to co-ordinate policy between the Hamas administration in Gaza and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank, and postponement of elections from January until June 2010.
While Fatah has not given its reply, its parliamentary speaker and negotiator Azzam al-Ahmad said he was “astonished” that the Egyptian plan did not keep to the PA’s proposed January 25th election date. An official source told The Irish Times it is expected that the PA will wait until the last moment to decide whether to announce the campaign period 90 days before the January date which coincides with the deadline given by Cairo for the conclusion of an accord.
The timing and conduct of the elections are not the only complicating factors. Hamas and Fatah are demanding an end to the arrest of each other’s supporters and the freeing of prisoners. Hamas is in a position to free its Fatah prisoners but the PA cannot easily release Hamas detainees.
It is committed to agreements with Israel and the US to detain men determined to forcibly resist the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and to uproot Hamas institutions regarded by Israel as the “infrastructure of terrorism”.
Another problem is the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured in 2006 by Hamas affiliates, in exchange for 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. While Israel has agreed in principle to a deal, it has not accepted the Hamas list of prisoners. Israel has made the freeing of Shalit the major condition for lifting its tight blockade of Gaza.
Finally, it is not clear whether the PA’s international allies and donors, the US and EU, are prepared to accept the Egyptian reconciliation package at this time.
The Irish Times’ informant said they are determined to “build up the West Bank” in order to boost Fatah while continuing to punish Gaza with the aim of undermining Hamas. However, if Egypt successfully brokers Hamas-Fatah reconciliation, its standing in the region would be given a major boost.