Egypt was expected to preside over intra-Palestinian reconciliation talks between estranged militant Gaza rulers Hamas and West Bank administration the Palestinian Authority (PA) on Wednesday as both factions are alleged to have travelled to Cairo for the meeting.
Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal is thought to have arrived in the Egyptian capital Tuesday with PA President Mahmoud Abbas set to follow Wednesday as part of Egypt’s increasing attempts to establish itself as an international mediator, following its successful efforts at negotiating a ceasefire to end the Gaza escalation last November.
According to comments made by Mashaal’s deputy, Moussa Abu Marzouk, on his Facebook page: ““Mashaal and the Hamas delegation will try to arrange [Tuesday] tonight with Egyptian officials for a possible meeting tomorrow (between Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, Abbas and Mashaal) to look into means of achieving Palestinian reconciliation”.
Hamas and the PA have been at odds since 2007, when the internationally outlawed group seized control of the Gaza Strip from then-rulers Fatah following Israel’s withdrawal from the territory two years previously. Recent developments have hinted a reconciliation between the two might be imminent, in the wake of the PA’s successful appeal for non-member observer status at the UN late last year, after the PA authorised the first official rally in the West Bank in five years to commemorate Hamas’s 25th anniversary.
At a debate on Israeli settlement expansion at the European Parliament (EP) plenary session in Strasbourg last month, Northern Ireland Green MEP Martina Anderson called for the EU border mission to be reinstated at Rafah, amid widespread calls from parliamentarians for an intra-Palestinian reconciliation to bring stability to the West Bank and Gaza as a whole.
Hamas however later confirmed they had rejected an EU appeal to reinstate its border assistance mission to the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the wake of last month’s ceasefire with Israel, as Hamas parliamentarian Ismail al-Ashqar told a government-owned tv station “the European observers have left the crossing never to return”.
In a sign of the increasing alliance between Hamas and the Egyptian government, he told Hamas’ Al-Aqsa station: “The Rafah crossing is a Palestinian-Egyptian crossing only, and there is no place for foreigners in it from now on.”
The day after the EP debate, MEPs voted for a resolution which called for the reconciliation of the estranged Gaza leadership and the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority and its President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank, as the only legitimate “way to reunite Palestinians living in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, who are part of the same Palestinian people”.
Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas appeared to respond to international calls for a national reconciliation, as he told reporters in Ramallah he saw no reason why the PA couldn’t reach an agreement with Hamas on the stalled national elections, in the wake of the PA’s bid for statehood at November’s General Assembly.
Despite the EU’s calls for intra-Palestinian reconciliation, such a move would undoubtedly place it in a difficult position, as the EU, along with the US and Israel, currently designates Hamas as a terrorist organisation and as such has no official dealings with the administration.