Fatah, Hamas to meet in Cairo next week, official says
Published yesterday (updated) 20/09/2014 22:28
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=728645
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Fatah and Hamas will hold talks in Cairo next week in
attempt to iron out issues that have prevented the full implementation of a
unity deal agreed upon in April, a senior Fatah official said Saturday.
Azzam al-Ahmad said in a statement that talks to finalize national
reconciliation would take place sometime in the middle of the week.
He added that talks with Israel to follow up on the August ceasefire
agreement would be held shortly after the Fatah-Hamas talks.
Meanwhile, Palestinian and Egyptian officials said the Israeli-Palestinian
ceasefire talks would resume in Cairo on Wednesday, AFP reported.
In April, Hamas and the Fatah-led PLO signed a unity agreement to bring the
West Bank and Gaza under the jurisdiction of one government.
Since the new government was officially sworn in in June, Hamas has demanded
it take responsibility for paying its 45,000 employees, 27,000 of whom are
civil servants.
But the unity government has been noncommittal, and earlier this month Prime
Minister Rami Hamdallah said he was under pressure from the international
community not to pay Hamas employees' salaries.
Throughout Israel's assault on Gaza, Hamas and Fatah put up a united front,
working side-by-side to further indirect truce talks with Israel in Cairo,
which resulted in an open-ended ceasefire that took effect on Aug. 26.
But in the aftermath of the war, tensions between Hamas and Fatah have
increased, with Abbas accusing the Islamist movement of running a "shadow
government" in Gaza and Hamas leaders arguing that the unity government is
not doing enough in the Strip.
AFP contributed to this report.
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