Abbas, Hamas leader agree on more steps to unity
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Xinhua, November 25, 2011
The Islamic Hamas movement and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party on Thursday agreed on more steps to complete their reconciliation.
The agreement occurred during a summit between senior leaders of the two rival parties in Cairo, where Abbas chaired the Fatah delegation and Khaled Mashaal, the head of Hamas' politburo, headed his delegation.
The meeting is the first since the two movements signed an Egyptian-brokered agreement in May. The agreement aimed at restoring political unity between the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the Fatah-ruled West Bank through a transitional government of technocrats.
The two movements agreed to reactivate a superior committee acting as a temporary leadership for the Palestine Liberation Organization, said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, in a statement from Cairo.
The two parties also agreed to end the politically-motivated arrests against each other's supporters in the Palestinian territories and boosting social reconciliation between families of the victims of the Hamas-Fatah fighting.
As for the government, the two movements agreed to continue discussions through committees until they agree on a prime minister to lead the government.
This issue is considered one of the main obstacles facing the members of the committees, as Hamas rejected an earlier offer by Abbas to retain his West Bank Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
Barhoum said that the parties also reached "understandings" on the political program that defines the relation between Israel and the Palestinians and the shape of the future Palestinian state. He did not elaborate on these understandings.
The two rivals also agreed to hold general elections in May 2012, as stipulated in the reconciliation agreement.
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