13 factions participate in Cairo meeting: Palestinian leader

CAIRO – 25 October 2017: Ziad Jarghoun, member of the political bureau of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), said on Wednesday that 13 political factions will participate in the Cairo meeting on November 21.

Jarghoun stated in a press statement that preparatory arrangements are being made for the next meeting in Cairo, indicating that they are the same factions who signed the Cairo agreement in 2011.

Five issues are scheduled to be discussed during the meeting, including forming a national unity government, the Palestine Liberation Organization, holding legislative and presidential elections, community reconciliation and civil liberties, added Jarghoun.

Jarghoun pointed out that they will form committees to take over these files to end the decade-long division between Fatah and Hamas, which has resulted in the disruption of the Palestinian cause.

Jarghoun demanded that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas fulfill his earlier promises of taking back his punitive measures against Gaza upon the dissolution of the Hamas administrative committee.

National dialogue is the only way to overcome divisions, and the reconciliation needs to be concluded swiftly, so tha Palestine’s position can be stronger and more powerful against the occupation.

In October, Fatah and Hamas signed a reconciliation agreement in Cairo under Egypt’s auspices, ending a decade-long Palestinian split. Despite a number of attempts to reconcile the Palestinian split, led by international and Arab efforts, only Egypt, with its historical and political position, was able to bring an end to the crisis.

Egypt managed to bring the conflicting Palestinian factions together to overcome the obstacles and to invest opportunities in creating new conditions for the future of the Palestinian people.

On October 12, Hamas and Fatah announced signing the final deal in Cairo regarding the reconciliation; officially ending the decade-long national split.

Last week, the Palestinian Prime Minister of the National Consensus Government formed in 2014, Rami Hamdallah, held his first cabinet meeting in Gaza after Hamas announced handing over the administration of the Gaza Strip to the unity government – a major step towards Palestinian reconciliation.

The West Bank and the Gaza Strip remained politically and administratively divided since June 2007, when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip following days of street fighting.