Abbas meets with Egypt's Marshal Tantawi ahead of Hamas session

Nov 23, 2011, 18:50 GMT

Gaza/Cairo - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met Wednesday with the head of Egypt's military council, the day before he is set to participate in Egyptian-brokered talks aimed at Palestinian reconciliation, the state-run news agency Wafa reported.

The meeting with Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of Egypt's military council, came after protests against the council's rule entered their fifth day in Cairo.

On Thursday, Abbas is to meet with the head of Hamas' politburo, Khaled Meshaal, to agree on a reconciliation pact, signed in May. It will be their first meeting since that ceremony.

Abbas' Fatah party have controlled competing fiefdoms in the Gaza Strip and West Bank since 2007, with violence occasionally flaring up between the two. The reconciliation is an attempt to forge a government that can speak for all people in the Palestinian territories.

However, Israel has said it would not recognize any government that included Hamas, which has never officially recognized the Jewish state.

Abbas' meeting with Tantawi, held at the Defence Ministry in Cairo, focused on current developments in the Palestinian territories, especially the questions of ongoing settlement, military occupation and escalating tensions, the report said.

'In addition to discussing the stalled peace process in the Middle East, the two leaders discussed the efforts to achieve reconciliation and implement it under the auspices of Egypt,' Wafa reported.

Despite earlier statements made by Hamas' strongman in Gaza, Mahoud al-Zahar, in which he said he doubted that the meeting could succeed, senior Fatah leaders expressed optimism.

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