Official: Cairo will invite factions for reconciliation talks
Published 24 November 2012
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=541642

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Egypt will invite Palestinian factions to Cairo to
resume reconciliation talks after Palestine's bid for a UN status upgrade
this week, a political official said Saturday.

Khalil Assaf, who heads the coalition of independents in the West Bank and
also chairs the public freedoms committee established under the
reconciliation deal, said he expects Egypt's invitation in the coming days.

All Palestinian leaders will then convene in Cairo to discuss their next
steps after President Mahmoud Abbas returns from the UN bid, due for a vote
at the UN General Assembly on Thursday, Assaf said.

All the principles of reconciliation have been agreed and now the leaders
need to get on with implementing them, he told Ma'an.

An Egyptian-brokered reconciliation deal between Fatah and Hamas has
repeatedly stalled, after the parties violently split Palestine into
separate governments in 2007.

Assaf blamed the failure of the agreement on a lack of political will.

But he noted that circumstances had now changed. Israel's eight-day
bombardment of the Gaza Strip united Palestinians, and Palestinians are now
calling for unity in their political factions in rallies in the West Bank
and Gaza, he said.