Palestinian party chiefs to meet in Cairo ‘in days’

A Cairo meeting of Palestinian factions is set to take place in the next few days, a Palestinian official said Saturday.

Egypt said it will invite the heads of all the factions, including Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas politicaal chief Khalid Mashaal, and Islamic Jihad head Ramadan Shalah, independent political leader Yasser al-Wadiyeh said.

“Egypt will be the sponsor for reconciliation and will send invitations to all directions to achieve reconciliation and end the split,” he told Ma’an.

The meeting will discuss practical implementation of the Doha and Cairo agreements which sought to end Fatah and Hamas’ division into separate Palestinian governments, al-Wadiyeh said.

Fellow independent Khalil Assaf said last week that the meeting would take place after Abbas had put Palestine’s status at the UN to a vote in New York.

Assaf said all the principles of reconciliation have been agreed, and blamed the failure of the agreement on a lack of political will.

An Egyptian-brokered reconciliation deal between Fatah and Hamas has repeatedly stalled, after the parties violently split Palestine into separate governments in 2007.