Egyptian officials claim delegations from Fatah and Hamas have hammered out an agreement to form an interim Palestinian Authority unity government and fix a date for elections, Reuters reports.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded to the report saying the PA could have .
"The consultations resulted in full understandings over all points of discussions, including setting up an interim agreement with specific tasks and to set a date for election," Egyptian intelligence said Wednesday in a statement.
A Hamas delegation was reported to be in Cairo on Tuesday for talks on Fatah-Hamas reconciliation.
The Hamas delegation met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil el-Araby and members of the ruling military council in Cairo while, at the same time, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas sat down with an Egyptian diplomat in Ramallah.
According to WAFA, Abbas told Egyptian Ambassador to the PA Yasser Othman, "Egypt is the backbone of our people's aspirations toward having an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital."
Whether the reported reconciliation between bitter rivals Hamas and Fatah is sustainable is a dubious proposition.
The Fatah-Hamas rivalry became entrenched after Hamas won big in the last PA elections, which resulted in Abbas purging Hamas officials from the PA stronghold in Ramallah and Hamas violently seizing control of its own stronghold in Gaza.
The announcement comes as Abbas by the United Nations in September.
Many security officials have warned that allowing Hamas to return to prominence in the PA would lead to a Hamas takeover in Judea and Samaria, similar to that carried out in Gaza in 2007.
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Reports of a unity agreement between the twin terror movements occupying parts of the Land of Israel are deceptive, according to a report Thursday in Maariv. The newspaper's Arab affairs expert, Amit Cohen, wrote that the disagreements that have been dividing Fatah and Hamas have not been resolved and that "unity" between the two is unlikely to hold up for very long.
The announcement about a unity deal is a cosmetic public diplomacy move, he estimated, designed to make the threat of a unilateral declaration of statehood by the Palestinian Authority in September more credible.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Fatah head Mahmoud Abbas, said Wednesday that the reconciliation between the groups would pull out the rug from under Israel's argument that it cannot close a deal with a divided PA. The PA has understood, speculated Cohen, that "if it is opting for a unilateral move in September, it needs to neutralize this mine, and paint a picture of Palestinian unity, even if it is a fictitious one."
A bipartisan group in the U.S. Congress meanwhile is threatening that a Hamas-Fatah deal could spell the end of U.S. aid off to the PA.
"The reported agreement between Fatah and Hamas means that a Foreign Terrorist Organization which has called for the destruction of Israel will be part of the Palestinian Authority government," Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the chairwoman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, stated. "U.S. taxpayer funds should not and must not be used to support those who threaten U.S. security, our interests, and our vital ally, Israel."
The U.S. currently funds the Fatah-led PA at about $470 million a year.
JTA reported that statements similar to Ros-Lehtinen's were released by Reps. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), the senior Democrat on the foreign operations subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee; Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.), the senior Democrat on the House Middle East subcommittee and Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), a Senate appropriator.
The Obama administration warned Wednesday that it would not deal with Hamas as long as it rejects Israel's right to exist and supports terrorism. The official White House reaction to news of the accord said: "The United States supports Palestinian reconciliation on terms which promote the cause of peace. Hamas, however, is a terrorist organization which targets civilians." White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement: "To play a constructive role in achieving peace, any Palestinian government must accept the Quartet principles and renounce violence, abide by past agreements, and recognize Israel's right to exist."
