Hamas respecting all previous agreements reached with Israel should be enough, writes Ibrahim Nafie Meetings with the Palestinian and Jordanian heads of state, as well as the UN Envoy, highlight President Hosni Mubarak's efforts to facilitate the formation of a unified Palestinian government internationally recognised and able to implement its policies. The president also visited the Saudi capital where he met Kind Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz to discuss the issue -- pooling the efforts of the region's two driving forces. For it was Saudi Arabia that managed to pressure Palestine's two main forces, Fateh and Hamas, to sign the Mecca Agreement with a view of forming a national-unity government, while Egypt had exerted intensive efforts to put an end to the conflict between them and generating an atmosphere conducive to such an agreement between Abbas and Hamas's political bureau chief Khaled Meshaal. Egypt's role did not end at this point. Rather, through the efforts of delegations sent to Washington and other world powers, there were continual attempts at persuading such powers to recognise the new Palestinian government as the Palestinian people's democratic choice. Egyptian advice was to avoid preconceptions and instead wait and see what the new government's policies would be. My own view is that Abbas's recent statements in Cairo, to the effect that while the policies of the national-unity government are mandatory for government members they are not so for the various Palestinian factions, are of immense importance. Government policies will not be imposed on the factions, who will in no way be forced to alter their vision -- a step that will hopefully result in more willingness to cooperate. At the same time it has been a positive development that those statements which take away from the credibility of the Mecca Agreement, rendering its advantages ineffective, have stopped being made. All of which is at least partly thanks to Egypt's efforts. I also feel that the moment is right for a wider Arab move coordinated by Saudi Arabia and Egypt with a view to coming up with a unified Arab position to cover the nascent Palestinian government and at the same time make the aforementioned promise to the Palestinian factions. It is well to remember that Fateh never in fact recognised Israel; rather, in recognising it, Arafat was representing the PLO, and no demands have since been made on Fateh to follow suit. It is thus unnecessary to impose a condition on Hamas that it must recognise Israel so long as Hamas respects all agreements made and hands over the negotiations file to the PLO. Abbas's tour of Europe, as much as Meshaal's visits to Tehran and Moscow, can be seen in the light of this drive to persuade the international community of dealing with the new Palestinian government and judging its policies on the ground rather than its political identity per se. In fact boycotting the government amounts to a rejection of the Palestinian people's choice, and an obstacle in the way of national unity. President Mubarak's efforts are now directed towards strengthening national reconciliation among Palestinians on the one hand, and deploying Egypt's political and diplomatic weight in the attempt to persuade various international parties of dealing with the Palestinian national unity government. It is important to stress that Egyptian-Jordanian efforts, in this connection, complement rather than undermine Egyptian-Saudi efforts; and there is no doubt that all three have been making very significant progress.
