CAIRO: Egypt on Friday welcomed an agreement between rival Palestinian factions to form a national unity government in a deal signed in Mecca, the official MENA news agency said.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit welcomed the agreement between the Fatah and Hamas movements… and hailed president Mahmud Abbas for tasking Prime Minister Ismail Haniya with forming the national unity government, MENA said.
The landmark deal grew out of marathon talks in Mecca aimed at ending lethal infighting and a crippling international boycott of the Palestinians.
It was signed by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who heads the Fatah party, and the exiled leader of the ruling Islamist Hamas movement, Khaled Meshaal, in the presence of host King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
Abbas swiftly asked Prime Minister Ismail Haniya to form a new government following the accord, which included a plan for division of ministerial posts.
The press however criticized the rival factions for taking so long to come to an agreement.
If a deal between Fatah and Hamas was so easy to come by, then why did they fail to come to an agreement during these last long months, wrote Ibrahim Saada in the state-owned daily Al-Akhbar newspaper.
How did they bear to leave the bloodshed between Palestinians carry on if they were capable of coming to an agreement so swiftly? he asked.
