CAIRO: Hamas has agreed to join the Palestine Liberation Organization — a key step toward unifying the long-divided Palestinian leadership. Hamas' leader Khaled Meshaal on Thursday joined a committee that will prepare for elections to the PLO leadership.Those elections are likely years away but Meshaal's move means he will work with
Thursday's development is an important step toward reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah — which have been split since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.
Separate elections in the West Bank and Gaza for a unified Parliament are tentatively set for next year.
Islamic Jihad is also hoping to join the PLO and the group's leader, Ramadan Shallah, will attend the Cairo talks along with all the other faction heads, members of the PLO Executive Committee and the speaker of the Palestinian National Council (PNC), Selim Zaanoun.
Fatah delegation chief Azzam Al-Ahmed said the meeting would look at the possibility of setting up a new PLO leadership body which would be "the first concrete application of the Cairo agreement, of the reconciliation and of the partnership between all the political forces."
The new body "will focus on the restructuring of the PLO leadership and of the PNC," he said.
| I'm looking forward to having Meshaal put himself somewhere where Mossad can grab him... |