Arab League chief mediates Fatah-Hamas unity talks

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby held mediation talks between the leaders of rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas in Cairo on Thursday, hoping to jumpstart long stalled reconciliation efforts.

Elaraby first held talks with Palestinian Authority President — and leader of Fatah — Mahmoud Abbas and later held talks with Hamas politburo leader Khaled Mashaal.

"There was a meeting this morning with President Mahmoud Abbas and just now I met with Mr. Khaled Mashaal. We discussed the Palestinian issue, which is the issue of the hour and the most important issue for all of the Arab countries," Elaraby told reporters during a joint news conference with Mashaal.

"We spoke of the necessity of this year seeing positive steps, especially after the Palestinian people in Gaza stood steadfast and after the Palestinian Authority succeeded in establishing an important legal position in the United Nations, and that is membership as an observer state. So now we must take advantage of what has taken place and use it to go forward because the aim is ending the occupation," he added.

An Egyptian official said earlier on Thursday the leaders of the Hamas and Fatah factions had agreed to talks in Cairo to implement a long-delayed reconciliation pact, although it was unclear if the deal would extend beyond holding more talks.

Abbas and Mashaal met face-to-face for the first time in over a year to discuss how to implement their 2011 deal.

The rival factions were divided when Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from Fatah by force in 2007. But they have drawn closer since Israel's offensive in Gaza in November and a diplomatic victory by Abbas the same month in which the United Nations voted to recognize Palestine as a "nonmember state."

Mashaal seemed positive reconciliation was on the horizon.

"The importance of these meetings is not to begin the reconciliation process. We started two years ago. But it is to put in place the reconciliation agreements that have been agreed upon and which have been signed; parallel and balanced timetables for a number of practical steps and we will start carrying them out as of next week, God willing," he told reporters.

The two sides have habitually failed to put into practice the deal they signed in Cairo in May 2011 to reunify the leadership of the Palestinian territories.

The Egyptian official said discussions to find ways to do so were held in a "positive spirit," and that the rival factions would meet again in the first week of February to work out a timetable.

Egyptian mediators had hoped to coax Abbas and Mashaal into a meeting with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, but such a meeting never materialized. Abbas is reluctant to accept any format that would imply giving the Hamas leader a status equivalent to his own.