Fatah looks to Cairo talks to end Palestinian split

Sep 23, 2008, 18:26 GMT

Cairo - The ruling Fatah faction is looking to current Cairo peace talks to end the split among the Palestinians, a senior Fatah official said Tuesday.

Nabil Shaath, heading the Fatah delegation to a meeting with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Soleiman, said he hoped the talks would produce agreement on a viable government that eventually would lead to presidential and legislative elections.

'Now everybody is waiting for a government that will put an end to the blockade of Gaza, open the borders and be accepted by everybody,' said Shaath.

Shaath told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the idea of deploying Arab forces was not discussed during a meeting earlier Tuesday which was part of talks to end the inter-Palestinian conflict.

'We discussed an Arab presence, but the shape of this presence will only be specified after the reconciliation, which everybody seeks, takes place,' the senior Fatah official said.

Shaath said that Hamas' answers to the Egyptian proposals were positive, yet unspecific.

'Hamas expressed their desire to unite all factions, but they did not say how this will be realised,' added Shaath, expressing his hope that the Islamist movement's intentions 'would be genuine'.

Egypt's proposal aims at reuniting all Palestinian groups and ending the rivalry between Fatah and Hamas which has been going on since the Islamist movement took over the Gaza Strip in June 2007.

Senior Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmad, also in Cairo, told dpa that there had been 'far-reaching' talks between Soleiman and the Fatah delegation.

Soleiman has already had 11 meetings with a succession of Palestinian factions throughout September. The last meeting with Hamas is scheduled to be held on October 8, to be followed by an all- inclusive meeting expected at the beginning of November in Cairo.