Amira Howeidy reports on the outcome of Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal's Cairo visit It has been a long time since a Hamas leader voiced optimism faced with the Israeli- made catastrophe in Gaza. In the past six months Israel has killed over 400 Palestinians. Since March it has prevented the Hamas government from withdrawing money to pay salaries, leaving the Palestinian population on the brink of starvation, and has taken every other step it can think of to weaken Hamas and end its days in power. It doesn't seem to have worked and now Hamas's top man, Khaled Meshaal, believes a breakthrough is imminent. During a four-day visit to Cairo this week, which ended on Sunday evening, Meshaal met General Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman for three hours. According to the Hamas leader the meeting brought the two sides closer. With Egypt and Hamas now seeing eye to eye on the three main issues pending -- a prisoners swap, the coalition government and ending the siege on the Palestinians -- Suleiman flew to Tel Aviv on Wednesday to relay Meshaal's terms. According to Hamas sources, Meshaal is demanding that Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier captured last June, be released in exchange for 1,400 Palestinian prisoners. The first batch of Palestinian prisoners would be released parallel with Shalit, though the deal will not go ahead in the absence of Israeli guarantees to Egypt that the second batch will be released. Hamas has selected the names of the 1,400 Palestinian prisoners -- including 120 women and 400 children -- involved. Israel holds 10,000 Palestinian prisoners. In a press conference at the Egyptian Press Syndicate on Saturday morning, Meshaal said he had come to Egypt to "speed up" the prisoners exchange deal and end Israel's and the international community's siege of the Palestinians. "Once these issues are out of the way," said Meshaal, "we will focus on our wider aims." For now, though, the priority is lifting the siege. To do that Hamas has made concessions. The elected prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, will give up his office. Hamas has agreed to remove all its prominent figures -- including Foreign Minister Mahmoud El-Zahhar and Interior Minister Said Siyam -- from the government. In the would-be coalition government, Hamas will also lose the Finance Ministry. It has, however, refused to hand over the Interior Ministry to Fatah and insists it remain a Hamas domain. The would-be government is expected to issue a "general" statement once final details have been agreed, denouncing violence and outlining a "positive" approach to agreements previously signed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Hamas may have made concessions, but so far neither the US nor Israel has responded with the necessary guarantees. Yet during his Cairo visit Meshaal was optimistic. In his Saturday press conference Meshaal pointed to a recent article by Chairman of the Council of Foreign Affairs Richard Hass. "He wrote that the American age in the Middle East is coming to an end," said Meshaal. He added that Israel too is in crisis and called upon Arab leaders to be "conscious" of developments that are reshaping the region. When Hamas came to power following its overwhelming parliamentary victory, winning 76 per cent of the votes in January, the Quartet -- the US, EU, Russia and the UN -- backed the siege Israel imposed on the Palestinians insisting Hamas recognise Israel, end violence and, latterly, release Shalit. Now, the Hamas leadership says, after recent "positive" talks the EU is not insisting that the Islamic group recognise Israel as a condition for ending the siege. On Monday the White House announced that the US is ready to open talks with Iran over Iraq for the first time since the Islamic Revolution, yet another sign that the regional balance of power could be tilting in Hamas's favour. Judging by the sombre mood of the Israeli press this week, Tel Aviv seems to have recognised that it is running out of options to defeat Hamas. A Haaretz editorial on Tuesday claimed that, "Hamas's strategy worked." In return for "symbolic concessions to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas... Hamas is reaping major rewards," wrote Ze'ev Schiff. Referring to the state of "calm" agreed between Abbas (on behalf of the various resistance factions) and Olmert earlier this week, Schiff argued that the "ceasefire" will "enable Hamas to become stronger". Following the group's electoral victory in January, Schiff went on, Israel decided that it would not allow Hamas to consolidate its power unless it met a number of conditions. "These conditions have not been met." If countries rush to recognise Hamas after the formation of the coalition government, he concluded, "its victory will be complete and Israel's failure will be great." On Monday Haaretz columnist Danny Rubenstein wrote under the headline "Meshaal en route to victory", arguing that should the prisoner swap deal happen Meshaal would have succeeded to do in months what the Palestinians before him failed to achieve after 10 years of futile "peace" negotiations. On the other hand, he argued, Israel cannot afford to hinder a breakthrough for the Palestinians because it will mean "more deterioration and destruction". That, Meshaal told Egyptian reporters, translates as a "third Intifada".
