CAIRO - Representatives of 13 Palestinian factions signed an Egyptian-brokered reconciliation deal in Cairo Tuesday, paving the way for elections within a year. Egypt Wednesday hosts a big ceremony to mark the breakthrough. Officials from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party and its rival Hamas, as well as independent political figures, attended the signing ceremony, which followed talks with Egyptian officials. "We signed the deal despite several reservations. But we insisted on working for the higher national interest," said Walid al-Awad, a politburo member of the leftist Palestine People's Party. The Egyptian document for reconciliation was signed by Fatah on October 15, 2009 and was then ratified by Hamas last week and 11 other factions signed it yesterday. "We have discussed all the reservations. Everyone has agreed to take these points into consideration," al-Awad told Egypt's official TV without elaborating. He added that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank would be celebrating this pact. "We must now work to implement what was agreed in the deal," he said. Among the first tasks to be tackled under the landmark agreement is the formation of a government and the establishment of a higher security council assigned with examining ways to integrate Hamas and Fatah's rival security forces and create a "professional" security service. The accord also calls for the creation of an electoral tribunal and for the release of a number prisoners held by the rival movements in jails in the West Bank and Gaza. Egypt has frequently mediated talks between various Palestinian factions since the two main parties began feuding in 2006, when Hamas beat Fatah in parliamentary elections. With the participation of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa and the Organisation of Islamic Conference' chief Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, a festival to hold in Cairo Wednesday marking the deal. The festival will also be attended by some foreign ministers of Arab and foreign countries as well as Mahmoud Hussein, the mufti of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem, and some other world renowned figure. Israel, which reacted furiously to the agreement, was caught short by the deal, with Defence Minister Ehud Barak admitting the following day that the country's security services had not expected a reconciliation.
