Senior Fatah official says Hamas deal close

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will finalise an agreement to share power with Hamas in meetings this week in Saudi Arabia, a senior Fatah official said today.

Abbas is due to hold a summit, beginning today, with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Islam’s holy city of Mecca in an effort by the sides to end bloodshed between the groups in the Gaza Strip.

Fatah and Hamas have overcome almost all obstacles preventing a national unity government during talks in recent weeks, Kadoura Fares, a former Fatah Cabinet minister who met Mashaal last week, told Israel’s Army Radio.

Hamas has come much closer to the political plan of Fatah to the point that it will respect peace agreements signed by Fatah – as the Palestinian Liberation Organisation – with Israel, Fares said.

“Hamas is willing to sign an agreement … that the (new) government respect all the agreements that the PLO signed with Israel,” Fares told Army Radio.

This change will help stop fighting in Gaza.

The talks will be held in a guest palace overlooking the Kaba, the huge cube-like shrine toward which all Muslims pray.

Abbas and Mashaal will be accompanied by large delegations.

The negotiations follow the bloodiest round yet in months of Hamas-Fatah fighting in Gaza, with 29 killed and scores wounded in four days, before a new truce took hold Sunday.

The clashes have deepened resentment and suspicion between the two sides, and might make it increasingly difficult to reach an elusive coalition deal.