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| Fatah and Hamas Leaders: File Photo |
Cario : The Palestinian Rival Groups Fatah and Hamas has reached an agreement on forming an interim government and fixing a date for a general election, Egyptian intelligence has said.
In February, Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority and a member of Fatah, called for presidential and legislative elections before September, in a move which was rejected by Hamas at the time.
"The consultations resulted in full understandings over all points of discussions, including setting
up an interim agreement with specific tasks and to set a date for election," Egyptian intelligence said in a statement on Wednesday.The deal, which took many officials by surprise, was thrashed out in Egypt and followed a series of secret meetings.
"The two sides signed initial letters on an agreement. All points of differences have been overcome," Taher Al-Nono, a Hamas government spokesman in Gaza, told the Reuters news agency.
He said that Cairo would shortly invite both sides to a signing ceremony.
Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, said on Wednesday that Abbas could not hope to forge a peace deal with Israel if he pursued a reconciliation accord with Hamas.
"The Palestinian Authority must choose either peace with Israel or peace with Hamas. There is no possibility for peace with both," he said.
Fatah holds power in the occupied West Bank while Hamas, which won the last parliamentary election in 2006, routed Abbas' forces in 2007 to seize control of the Gaza Strip.
Wednesday's accord was first reported by Egypt's intelligence service, which brokered the talks.
In a statement carried by the Egyptian state news agency MENA, the intelligence service said the deal was agreed by a Hamas delegation led by Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of the group's politburo, and Fatah central committee member Azzam al-Ahmad.
Al-Ahmad and Abu Marzouk said the agreement covered all points of contention, including forming a transitional government, security arrangements and the restructuring of the Palestine Liberation Organisation to allow Hamas to join it.
Speaking on Egyptian state television, al-Ahmad said a general election would take place within a year
