CAIRO: Egypt warned Sunday it would not wait “forever for Palestinian factions to agree a unity deal after the Islamist movement Hamas postponed signing the accord with its Fatah rivals.
“Egypt is not prepared to wait forever, foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki told Al-Arabiya television.
Cairo has been trying for several months to help end the division between the Gaza Strip, controlled by Hamas since June 2007, and the West Bank, where Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas holds sway.
The signing of the unity agreement was to be held in Cairo on Oct. 26.
But Hamas said the delay was also partly the result of differences with Abbas’ Fatah movement over the Goldstone commission’s report on the devastating Israeli offensive on Gaza at the turn of the year.
“The document prepared by Egypt is not a document (meant for) negotiations. The negotiations lasted several months, Zaki said.
“Egypt has received comments from all factions and has discussed them with everyone at the highest level, including with Hamas, which sent the head of its political bureau to Cairo for more details.
“It is therefore surprising to hear… now that Hamas still has reservations about when the draft agreement should be signed, the foreign ministry spokesman said.
Earlier, an Egyptian official accused Hamas of bad faith over its refusal to sign up to the unity deal on schedule.
“Egypt was surprised by Hamas’s procrastination when it said it could not come to Cairo on the planned date, the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper quoted the unnamed official as saying.
“The delay to reconciliation and the fact that Hamas has stirred up such a terrifying atmosphere in the Palestinian territories shows that Hamas lacks good faith and has its own agenda, the official said.
Egypt announced on Friday that, at the Islamists’ request, its mediators had indefinitely postponed their deadline for Hamas to sign the unity deal.
A Hamas official said the Islamist movement delayed sending a delegation on Sunday to give its response to the proposed agreement because Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who negotiated it, was out of the country.
Suleiman had been accompanying President Hosni Mubarak on a European tour that lasted several days, and returned on Sunday afternoon.
Senior Hamas official Mohammed Nasr blamed what he said was an inconsistency between the Egyptian plan and what Hamas and the other factions had agreed on.
“All that we ask is that what we had agreed on is consistent with the Egyptian paper, the Damascus-based leader told Al-Jazeera television. “We do not want to add anything new.
The agreement provides for the holding of presidential and parliamentary elections in June next year and the reinstatement of 3,000 members of the former Fatah-led security apparatus in Gaza.
It would be implemented by a joint committee appointed by presidential decree and made up of members of Fatah, Hamas and other factions.
Persistent tensions between Hamas and Fatah came to the boil in June 2007 when the Islamists ousted their rivals from the Gaza Strip after a week of street clashes, cleaving the Palestinians into two hostile camps.
