Salah El-Bardawil, the spokesman of Hamas parliamentary
bloc, said that the rival movements agreed to hold a meeting next week to
discuss security arrangements in order to reach an inter-reconciliation
agreement. The political unity was severed since Hamas routed pro-President
Mahmoud Abbas forces and ousted Fatah in deadly fighting in Gaza in 2007.
El-Bardawil said that the two movements haven't yet
agreed on the place where they will convene the meeting, however, added that
Damascus is one of the options.
The reconciliation meeting was scheduled to be held in
Damascus in Oct. 20. However, Fatah officials asked their Hamas rivals to move
the place to another capital "due to arguments between Abbas and Syrian
President Bashar Assad in Libya on Oct. 10."
Azzam Al-Ahmad, a member of Fatah Central Committee and
the chief of its delegation to the reconciliation talks, told the
Ramallah-based Al-Ayyam daily that the two rival factions had agreed to hold
the meeting next week.
"We agreed to hold another meeting, but so far we
haven't agreed yet on the place where the meeting will be held," Al-Ahmad
said, adding "Fatah is keen to resolve the misunderstanding with the
Syrian leadership."
The first meeting was held in Damascus at the end of
September, where the two sides agreed on the issues of elections and the
reforming of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), but the file of security
remained unresolved.
In
October 2009, Egypt presented a draft of reconciliation to the Palestinian
factions, mainly rivals Fatah and Hamas. Fatah accepted the reconciliation
draft while Hamas refused to sign and said it had some reservations that should
be reconsidered.
