The first round of inter-Palestinian national unity dialogue held in Cairo has carried important results on various issues, but differences still remained in major key issues, including the formation of a unity government.

Local analysts believe that after the first phase of dialogue the reconciliation talks are moving towards positive direction, but there are still obstacles ahead mainly on forming the unity government and the issues of abiding by Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) commitments.

Progress has been made

On March 10, around 80 leaders representing 13 Palestinian factions began inter-Palestinian dialogue with an aim to achieve reconciliation and form a new unity government, replacing Hamas' administration of the Gaza Strip and Salam Fayyad's government which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas formed in the West Bank.

The Palestinian conferees in Cairo dialogue, who represent all the factions, work under five committees to settle the five controversial issues: forming a unity government, reforming the security services, reforming the PLO, holding elections and achieving the reconciliation.

In the first round of discussion, notable progress have been made on various aspects. On March 12, an agreement on the issue of the Palestinian security services has been reached by the security committee which becomes the first one to finish its work among the five committees.

On March 15, Palestinian factions agreed on holding parliamentary and presidential elections by January 2010. As the legislative elections is one of the main pending issue among the talks, the agreement was viewed as the most important progress in the first phrase of the dialogue.

So far, the five committees have ceased talks and handed their files to the Higher Committee to discuss. The delegations of faction members from the 13 parties left Cairo Tuesday, while the Higher Committee will continue discussing the "stranded" issues.

Fawzi Barhoum, the Islamic Hamas movement spokesman, expressed optimism on being close to reaching an agreement within the coming days, saying that "there is a relative progress in so many issues, and there are achievements made in essential questions."

Yasser Al-Wadiyah, representative of the independents participating in the Cairo dialogue, also affirmed that "We are so close to reaching reconciliation and consensus and we have the right opportunity to end the internal divisions to construct the joint national project."

Difficult ties unsolved

Despite all the tangible progress, prospect for success of the reconciliation talk has decreased significantly as the major difficulty of forming the unity government still remains.

On March 16, the committee of reconciliation had concluded its discussions but there are still disagreements on forming a Palestinian unity government, and the issues of respecting or abiding by PLO commitments.

The PLO had announced to recognize Israel, denounce violence and signed a series of peace treaties with Israel. But Hamas did not join the organization.

The unity government is the ultimate goal of the talks and the only way to end the one-and-half-year-long rift between Fatah and Hamas, the two major Palestinian factions.

Also, rebuilding Gaza will mainly depend on the new unity government.

Analysts have said that if the Palestinian factions, mainly Hamas and Fatah, cannot reach a deal to form a new national unity government, it may be very difficult for the Palestinians to get the international donation of around 5 billion US dollars to reconstruct the war-torn Strip.

Though Hamas won the parliamentary elections in 2006 and oustedits rival Fatah movement from the Gaza Strip, the United States and the EU still list Hamas among the world's groups of terrorism.

The international Quartet, namely, the United Nations, the United States, the EU and Russia, has conditioned that any new national unity Palestinian government should abide by its requirements, which include recognizing Israel, the signed peace treaties and condemn violence.

But Hamas announced that they insist "whatever happens, Hamas would never recognized Israel." Abbas-backed government of West Bank prefers a new unity government to be formed with a political platform that abides by the PLO commitments.

So the toughest task of the reconciliation dialogue is to form a unity government which will be both recognized by the international community and accepted by the Palestinian factions.

As the Higher Committees will continue to discuss the unsolved problems on forming unity government and reforming the PLO, the efforts are still geared up toward a positive way.

(Xinhua News Agency March 18, 2009)