Doaa El-Bey examines recent Egyptian moves aimed at helping to pave the way for a national unity government in Palestine Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said last week he would be willing to resign if that helps end the crippling embargo against his government imposed by Western countries and Israel last March. Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, meanwhile, described the atmosphere between Hamas and Fatah as positive. "We want to tell the world that we form one Palestinian line and the siege has to be lifted. The international community has no option but to respect the Palestinians' will," Meshaal said following a meeting with Ahmed Qurei, a senior member of Fatah, in Syria on Monday. Qurei had been dispatched to Damascus to resolve outstanding issues standing in the way of a new government being formed. In recent months Egypt has been working closely with the Palestinians to resolve two main issues: the formation of a unity government and the exchange of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit for Palestinians detained by Israel. Should the issues be resolved it is expected that the embargo will be lifted and the Rafah passage reopened. That would pave the way for a resumption of the peace process. A senior Egyptian diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Egyptian position since the election of the Hamas government had been to differentiate between Hamas and punishing the Palestinian people for their democratic choice. "We work on developing Hamas's attitude, and at the same time supporting the Palestinian people," he said. "Egypt has tried to bridge the gap which has existed between the Hamas government and the demands of the international community by finding ways to allow aid to continue to flow to the Palestinian people. We came up with a mechanism allowing at least some aid to go through the Palestinian authority or directly via NGOs." But the bulk of this aid, he adds, failed to reach its target because of the embargo placed by banks on any financial transactions with Palestine. Since its election Egypt has been seeking to persuade the Hamas government to abandon violence, commit to agreements signed by previous governments, and recognise Israel. Hamas's refusal to recognise Israel, or the Israeli-Palestinian agreements already signed, led to isolation from the international community, a situation compounded following the capture of Shalit. Egypt's Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman mediated between Hamas, Israel and Fatah as Cairo worked towards freeing Shalit and the formation of a national unity government acceptable to the international community. At the end of October Suleiman met a Hamas delegation in Cairo to brief them about his talks with Israel over freeing Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit. The meeting came two weeks after Suleiman visited Syria and informed Hamas that Israel had accepted, in principle, a prisoner swap. Suleiman's visit resulted in widespread speculation that Meshaal would soon visit Cairo to conclude a deal. Shalit was captured in June, following which demands were made by his captors for the release of more than Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, more than 400 of them women and children. Egypt's permanent delegation in the occupied territories attended a number of Fatah- Hamas meetings in an attempt to bridge the gap between the two factions over the formation of a government of national unity and contain the Fatah-Hamas fighting that erupted in Palestinian streets early last month. Although Egypt worked together with other Arab states to smooth the path to the formation of a new government, seen as essential to resolving the current crisis, Cairo has been criticised for failing to support Hamas or offer a strong enough stand against the US and Israel. But while Egypt respects the choice of the Palestinian people, says the diplomatic source, Mahmoud Abbas remains the head of the Palestinian authority, "and all dealings with the Palestinian entity must be done through the head of the Palestinian authority." Egypt, he continued, has condemned Israeli practices on several occasions and, following a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo this month, severely criticised Washington's veto of a Security Council resolution condemning recent Israeli massacres. "Although the Arab reaction is described as too little too late, it is sending a very strong signal to the US and EU that enough is enough."
