Palestinian President, Hamas Leader Made Unity deal in Cairo

23.02.2012

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal have settled internal disagreements and approved a unity deal after talks in Cairo on Wednesday, a senior official said.
“The meeting decided to fully implement the reconciliation agreement and the Doha declaration,” Izzat al-Rishq, an aide to Meshaal told the Associated Press.
“It puts an end to the debate and discussions over Hamas’ position concerning the Doha agreement and puts an end to what seemed to be disagreement within Hamas.”

A reconciliation deal has previously been a struggle to implement as the long-time rivals have run separate governments since 2007 - Abbas in the West Bank and the Islamic militant group, Hamas, in Gaza.
Hamas leaders in Gaza had previously objected to relinquishing power to Abbas under the terms of a unity deal.
But earlier on Wednesday, members of Hamas’ leadership said the deal must be implemented in a “thorough and honest” way.
“We stress the need for thorough and honest implementation of the reconciliation agreements of Cairo and Doha to end the division and unify the national front,” they said in a statement after meeting.
A lengthy disagreement about the post of prime minister appeared to have been resolved in early February, when Abbas and Meshaal signed a deal in Qatar that put the president at the head of the interim government.
The government line-up was to have been announced shortly afterwards, but the Doha agreement was met with opposition from Gaza-based members of Hamas, as well as some officials in the Fatah-controlled West Bank.