CAIRO: Rival delegations from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party and the Hamas movement were in Cairo yesterday for a new round of reconciliation talks already deemed “difficult.” The two delegations were expected to meet separately with Egyptian security officials ahead of three-way talks on Monday with intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, the state-owned Al-Akhbar daily said.
The Fatah team was headed by former Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, while the Hamas delegation was led by politburo member Mussa Abu Marzouk.
The rival factions are expected to discuss the formation of a national unity government and its programme, the reform of security apparatuses and the drafting of a new electoral law, Al-Akhbar said.
But hopes of progress were dim after Hamas predicted obstacles.
“This session will be the most difficult, taking account of the inflexibility” witnessed in previous rounds, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP in Gaza on Saturday. This round will be the last attempt at inter-Palestinian reconciliation if the talks fail, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization warned.
This round “will be the last if there is no agreement between the two parties,” the official said asking to remain anonymous.
The two sides began their negotiations in Cairo on March 10, but so far the talks have made little headway in healing the deep rift between Abbas’s government Hamas.
Discussions were suspended for three weeks on April 2 and a few days later the Egyptian government proposed adjourning efforts to form a unified government and instead setting up a committee to coordinate two rival Cabinets.
