Abul Gheit: Reconciliation agreement to be postponed "several weeks"

Oct 11, 2009, 11:52 GMT

Cairo - Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Sunday that the signing of the proposed inter-Palestinian reconciliation agreement has been postponed for 'several weeks.'

'This (postponement) is likely,' he said about the signing which had been set for October 25.

'They (Hamas) asked to postpone the signing for several weeks,' Abul Gheit told reporters after his meeting with US Middle East envoy George Mitchell who was visiting Egypt after his talks with Palestinian and Israeli officials on Friday.

The postponement represents the latest hitch in the efforts by Egypt to broker an agreement to reconcile Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and Fatah, the West Bank-based party Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The two sides have been at odds since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, ousting Fatah's security forces.

Last Wednesday, Hamas asked Cairo for the postponment, arguing that no deal would be cemented until Abbas apologized for agreeing to delay a debate on the United Nation's report, authored by South African Judge Richard Goldstone, which accused both Isral and Hamas of war crimes during last winter's Gaza conflict.