The Arab League is forming a special committee to follow up on efforts to reunite Palestinian rivals Hamas and Fatah, a senior Hamas leader said on Thursday.
Hamas leader Ismail Radwan said that the committee, along with five other Palestinian committees, began work on Thursday.
The five committees of Hamas and Fatah negotiators will hammer out the details of a plan to restore unity to Palestinian politics after nearly two years of division. The panels will address the formation of a transitional government, the timing of elections, reform of the security services, the integration of Hamas into the PLO, and other issues.
Radwan said that several Palestinian factions would be involved in the PLO committee, which will reform the PLO based on a 2005 Hamas-Fatah agreement. Currently Hamas and Islamic Jihad are barred from the organization.
Radwan said Hamas views the Egyptian-sponsored talks with Hamas “positively,” welcoming Fatah’s pledge to release Hamas political prisoners in the West Bank. He said the prisoners should be released soon if the talks are to succeed. He also said it would be critical for the Palestinian Authority to reopen Hamas-linked educational, charity, health and media institutions that had been shut down in the West Bank.
After wining parliamentary elections in 2006, Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, fearing a coup by Fatah. After Hamas prevailed in the fighting in Gaza, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed a Hamas-Fatah unity government and appointed a caretaker government that still holds power in the West Bank.
Source:Maan News Agency - Gaza-Betlehem
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