Senior delegations from Hamas and Fatah will meet in Cairo on Sunday to discuss ways to implement the Palestinian reconciliation pact signed in May. The meeting will be a prelude to a more comprehensive meeting of all Palestinian factions on Tuesday. Palestinian sources said the two delegations arrived in Cairo on Saturday for their meeting today. The Fatah delegation is led by Azzam al-Ahmed, a member of the movement's central committee; Sakhr Bsaiso, a Gaza-based member of the central committee; Zakaria al-Agha, a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee member; Mahmoud al-Aloul, governor of the Palestinian Authority's Nablus governorate and Amin Maqboul, secretary general of Fatah's revolutionary council. The Hamas delegation is led by Mousa Abu Marzouq, deputy chairman of the Hamas political bureau, and includes Ezzat al-Rashq, Mohamed Nasr, Mahmoud al-Zahhar, Khalil al-Hayya and Nizar Awadallah, also members of the bureau. The meeting will be about the formation of a government, the general elections scheduled for May, political detainees and other issues. The reconciliation pact was signed by the two factions during an official celebration in Cairo in May, but disagreements over how to form a government have delayed its implementation. The pact aimed to end divisions lasting almost four years. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, of Fatah, and Hamas' political leader Khaled Meshaal met on 24 November in Cairo and agreed to work as partners to implement the pact. The pact's main terms stipulate the formation of a government of independent figures to prepare for elections and deal with local issues resulting from the former political divisions.
