Al-Ahmad: Egypt wants Hamas-Fatah deal signed in October
Published today (updated) 13/10/2009 11:29
www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=231809

Bethlehem - Ma'an - Egypt wants rival Palestinian factions to sign a
power-sharing agreement on 20 October, Fatah leader Azzam Al-Ahmad has
confirmed.

Al-Ahmad told Ma'an in a phone interview that Hamas and Fatah are expected
to reply to Egypt's latest proposal by Thursday, in the form of a simple
"yes" or "no." Provided that both approve the proposal, the remaining
factions are to submit their answers by the 20th, and the deal will be
signed the same day.

However, a formal signing ceremony will not take place until after the Eid
Al-Adha holiday, the official said.

Al-Ahmad, who is personally involved in the negotiations, said that Fatah is
considering the proposal, and that the party's Central Committee has
signaled a "positive attitude" toward it.

He said that the reason for the multi-stage signing process was that Hamas
officials who recently held talks in Cairo with the Egyptian mediators had
expressed a "negative attitude."

Importantly, Al-Ahmad stressed that Fatah leader and President Mahmoud Abbas
plans to issue a decree on 25 October calling for new elections whether an
agreement is signed or not. Hamas is opposed to calling immediate elections,
on the arguing that a deal should be signed first, followed by several
months of campainging and preparing for elections.

The Fatah official said that the latest draft of the Egyptian reconciliation
document takes into account the work of five official Palestinian committees
set up last February to address the outstanding issues: reform of the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), elections, security, overall
reconciliation, and government.

The PLO and reconciliation committees, the official said, are proceeding
according to past agreements. However, there is disagreement in the
elections committee about the electoral system.

The government committee, he said, has agreed that, instead of a
full-fledged transitional government, a multi-faction coordinating committee
will be established in the unity deal. This committee will supplement the
Palestinian Authority (PA), rather than replace it.

In the security committee, Al-Ahmad said, the Egyptians have taken into
account what the factions agreed upon during talks in February. In addition
he said new suggestions have come up for the points on which agreement was
not initially reached. He declined to elaborate further.

US undermining unity deal

Meanwhile, the Israeli daily Haaretz reports that the US has informed Egypt
that it does not support its current proposal for Palestinian unity,
believing that it would undermine a push to renew peace talks with Israel.

The newspaper said that in a meeting in Cairo on Saturday night, US Middle
East Envoy George Mitchell told Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman,
the official in charge of the Hamas-Fatah talks, that the US will not
support any agreement not in compliance with the so-called Quartet
conditions.

Mitchells reported statements would be consistent with past US policy under
Presidents Bush and Obama. The international Quartet (the US, EU, UN, and
Russia) conditions stipulate that if it is to be dealt with by the
international community, any Palestinian government must recognize Israel
and renounce armed struggle.