A long-awaited Palestinian national unity dialogue opened Thursday in Cairo. It was attended by all Palestinian factions and some independent forces. A high-ranking Egyptian official said the opening session was followed by announcing the formation and missions of the five committees that were agreed upon in last November, namely on reconciliation, government, security, elections and the Palestinian Liberation Organization. They also agreed to form a sixth committee grouping Egypt and the Arab League to help end any differences that may emerge during the five committee meetings. The reconciliation committee will be responsible for solving all disagreements between Fatah and Hamas, topped by the file of the prisoners and the mutual media campaigns. Fatah has released 21 Hamas prisoners early this week in a goodwill gesture. In addition, it released another batch of prisoners, thus taking the number of the released to 61. For its part, Hamas allowed Fatah members in the Gaza Strip to travel to the West Bank to attend a Fatah organizational meeting, the Egyptian official said. Cairo persuaded Hamas in the past few days that participation in the dialogue will enable it to strongly and transparently open the file of political prisoners in the West Bank. During the pre-dialogue two-day meetings, Hamas and Fatah agreed to immediately stop detentions and release the detainees with the launch of the comprehensive national dialogue sessions. The Egyptian official pointed out that the main mission of the "government" committee is to form a government of national consensus, which is likely to be actually formed in April. The government's main task is to solve all problems in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and to prepare for the Palestinian legislative and presidential elections, slated for January 2010.
The "security" committee aims to reach a security reform between Fatah and Hamas on the basis of efficiency and professionalism rather than the factional affiliation. The two parties agreed that the security bodies should be neutral and have nothing to do with the political disagreements. The "elections" committee is responsible for the technical preparations for the legislative and presidential elections and consensus on the details of those elections, such as the electoral system under which the elections will be held.
The "Palestinian Liberation Organization" committee is responsible for the restructure and reform the PLO so that all factions (Hamas and Islamic Jihad) will join it in accordance with March 2005 agreement. The committee is also in charge of making all factions adhere to the PLO as the sole legitimate and internationally-recognized representative of the Palestinian people. The PLO committee will represent all factions without exceptions unlike the other four committees, which include Fatah, Hamas and a limited number of other factions and parties to limit differences in the smallest possible circle. The Egyptian official described the issues on the table of dialogue as "complicated" and need considerable effort and sincere intentions from all Palestinian groups and factions. He stressed that Egypt would not impose a certain agenda on the Palestinian factions to resolve these issues, but it will offer its point of view and long experience. "We hope that the Palestinian government of consensus will be formed next April. This government should be accepted by the Palestinians and the international community. It also should be chaired by an independent person, supported by all organizations, and have members from Hamas, Fatah and all other organizations. It should also have independent and technocratic members. The prime minister and the ministers of the sovereign ministries should be independent," the Egyptian source added.
