Geo436 DAMASCUS: High-level officials from Hamas and Fatah have launched the latest of several efforts to restart stalled talks between the two Palestinian factions with a “friendly” meeting in the Syrian capital. Khaled Meshaal, the exiled leader of Hamas, hosted Fatah representative Azzam al-Ahmad at his office in Damascus on Friday. The two men said their groups would “hold a meeting shortly” to outline a deal, and then travel to Cairo “to sign a reconciliation agreement”. “An agreement was reached for a course and the steps to be taken toward reconciliation,” the two men said in a joint statement. Hamas and Fatah have been estranged for years, and differences sharpened in 2006, when Hamas won elections that would have given it control of the Palestinian legislature. Their split was finalised in 2007, after a year of infighting, when Hamas expelled Fatah from the Gaza Strip. Egypt has tried for months to broker an agreement, but talks have repeatedly broken down, most recently in October. The latest round of talks came after Meshaal met Omar Suleiman, the Egyptian intelligence chief, in Saudi Arabia earlier this month.
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