Official: Hamas will respond to reconciliation pact in Cairo Sunday

Oct 17, 2009, 11:34 GMT

Gaza City/Cairo - A senior delegation of the Islamic Hamas movement will hand to Cairo officials on Sunday its response to an Egyptian-drafted pact of reconciliation with the rival Palestinian Fatah organisation, Hamas said Saturday.

Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said the delegation would be chaired by Musa Abu Marzouk, deputy politburo chief of Hamas, and would include other Hamas leaders.

'The delegation will arrive in Cairo on Sunday to hand over Hamas response to the Egyptian document for achieving the Palestinian reconciliation,' said Barhoum. 'The delegation will discuss the dates for signing the pact.'

On Thursday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party had unilaterally signed on the pact and handed it to Egypt. Fatah leader Azzam el-Ahmad said his movement accepted the pact with no reservations.

The pact was scheduled to be signed in Cairo on October 25 but this was delayed on a Hamas request following disputes over the UN Goldstone report on war crimes committed by Israel and Hamas in the Gaza conflict last December and January.

Egypt, which drafted the pact in coordination with Fatah, Hamas and other factions during six months of marathon dialogue, decided to ask each faction first to unilaterally sign the pact.

Under it, an official ceremony will be held in Cairo at the end of November, attended by all Palestinian leaders. Hamas leaders have already said they do not oppose the dates.