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| Mehmood Abbas and Khalid Mashal |
Cairo : The Palestinian rival factions have met in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, to mark a landmark reconciliation agreement signed a day earlier.
Khaled Meshaal, the leader of the Hamas movement, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and leader of Fatah, were attending Wednesday's ceremony, meeting face-to-face for the first time since 2006.
Speaking at the ceremony, Mehmood Abbas said Palestinians had turned the "black page" of
division between the two rivals."We announce to Palestinians that we turn forever the black page of division," he said.
The Hamas Leader Khaled Meshaal said that his group's "only fight is with Israel" and that the four-year-old rift with Fatah was "behind us".
"Our aim is to establish a free and completely sovereign Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, whose capital is Jerusalem, without any settlers and without giving up a single inch of land and without giving up on the right of return [of Palestinian refugees]."
Representatives of the United Nations, the European Union and the Arab League were also present at the gathering at the headquarters of the Egyptian intelligence agency.
The unity deal, which was signed on Tuesday, aims to end the feud between the ideologically divided factions in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank. It involves members of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Islamic Jihad, Popular Resistance Committee and Hamas.
It will pave the way for presidential and legislative elections within a year.
