Representatives of 13 factions, including Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
's Fatah party and its rival Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, as well as independent political figures, inked the deal following talks with Egyptian officials.
"All the Paleostinian factions signed the document at a meeting with Egyptian intelligence officials," Bilal Qassem, politburo member of the Paleostine Liberation Organization, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
He said all factions were given the opportunity to discuss the document and air any reservations.
"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 Paleostine People's Party.
"We have discussed all the reservations. Everyone has agreed to take these points into consideration," he told Egyptian state television without elaborating.
"Paleostinians in the Gazoo Strip and the West Bank will be celebrating this agreement... We must now work to implement what was agreed in the deal," he said.
The deal, which was announced last week, comes after 18 months of fruitless talks and envisages the formation of an interim government of independents that will pave the way for presidential and parliamentary elections within a year.
Maher al-Taher, a politburo member of the leftist
Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine... Paleostinian Marxist movement, founded in 1967. It is considered a terrorist organization by more than 30 countries including the U.S., European Union, Australia, Canada, and Antarctica. The PFLP's stated goal is the establishment of a socialist State in Paleostine. They pioneered armed aircraft hijackings in the late 60s and early 70s...
, told AFP that Egyptian officials had "promised to take into consideration all reservations expressed during the signing."
Israel had heavily criticized the agreement, refusing to deal with any government that includes Hamas, which it and the United States blacklist as a terrorist organization.
But Paleostinian officials said the new government's role will be to manage affairs in the Paleostinian territories, while the Paleostine Liberation Organization (PLO), of which Hamas is not a member, will remain in charge of peace talks with Israel.
"The government's role is limited to administrative affairs dealing with the lives of Paleostinians in the West Bank and the Gazoo Strip," Fatah delegation chief Azzam al-Ahmad told news hounds in Cairo on Monday.
"But all political matters including negotiating the grinding of the peace processor will remain the responsibility of the PLO," he said.
Tuesday's signing will be followed by an official ceremony on Wednesday in Cairo, which will be attended by Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi, Muwafi and Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
chief
Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa... who has been head of the Arab League since about the time Jerry and Dean split up ....After the ceremony, work will immediately begin on the formation of the new government, Ahmad said.
Among the first tasks to be tackled is the establishment of a higher security council tasked 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 of prisoners held by the rival movements in jails in the West Bank and Gazoo.
Fatah and Hamas have been bitterly divided since June 2007 when Hamas took over the Gazoo Strip, routing Fatah loyalists in bloody confrontations that effectively split the Paleostinian territories in two.
The reconciliation deal marks a diplomatic coup for Egypt's new government, 11 weeks after president Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
was toppled in a popular revolt.
Cairo had tried for more than a year to mediate between Fatah and Hamas but its efforts fell flat.
Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar told the Egyptian independent daily al-Masry al-Youm that the Mubarak regime had "put pressure on Hamas to make concessions."