The Head of Fatah Parliamentary Bloc Azzam Al-Ahmad has revealed the causes behind the failure of Palestinian factions' dialogue in Cairo last December. Speaking to the press yesterday, he said that external forces had forced Palestinian factions not to go to Cairo. "I went to Damascus last December 7th before the meeting of the Palestinian national dialogue on 10-11 December. The Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki traveled to Damascus and asked the factions not to attend the dialogue," al-Ahmad said. Head of Hamas Political Bureau Khaled Meshaal's call for the establishment of alternative reference to the Palestine Liberation Organization has caused split within Hamas itself, as Hamas leader Ghazi Hamd has rejected the idea, saying that the problem is not in the organization, but in the security and military institutions.
Other factions have announced their opposition to Meshaal's proposal. The leader of the Islamic Jihad movement Khaled al-Batsh and the member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine's Political Bureau Ramzy Rabah have rejected Meshaal's idea. On the other hand, Egypt expects more than 80 countries and donors to take part in the international conference, slated for March 2, on the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has decided to travel to Cairo within hours to meet with President Hosni Mubarak. In statements yesterday, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry's Spokesman Hossam Zaki said the European countries had welcomed and supported Egypt's call for the international conference.
