Efforts by the Arab world to reconcile the Palestinian Fatah and Hamas factions could be put back for years if unity talks in Cairo next week end without agreement, a diplomat involved in the process said today.
The Islamist group Hamas has threatened to boycott the November 10th negotiations unless Fatah halts its "arrests and repression" of Hamas activists in the West Bank and releases some 400 Hamas prisoners it says are held in West Bank jails.
Conflict between the two factions intensified when Hamas seized the Gaza Strip from Fatah in fighting in June 2007. Fatah holds sway in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Arab League, enlisted by main mediator Egypt to try to heal the Fatah-Hamas rift, could lose interest if no deal was reached next week.
"If Cairo's efforts fail because Palestinian factions did not want to end their divisions, the Palestinians could be left alone for years," the diplomat said.
Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip planned to meet Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who is steering the reconciliation effort, in Cairo on Tuesday.
Senior Gaza Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar told reporters before he crossed into Egypt the visit aimed to "hammer out the obstacles" before the broad talks next Monday.
An Egyptian paper aimed at ending the Palestinian divisions calls on all factions to recognise the Palestine Liberation Organisation, headed by Fatah leader and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, as the supreme Palestinian authority.
Mr Abbas was elected president of the Palestinian Authority in 2005, but Hamas defeated his Fatah movement a year later in a general election.
Hamas and the less influential Islamic Jihad, which both opposed Mr Abbas's peace talks with Israel, have said they will not recognise the PLO until it has been restructured and they are included in the organisation.
Another key issue is Fatah's insistence that any future unity government with Hamas recognises existing interim peace accords with Israel.
Hamas, as part of a unity deal, wants to restructure the security services throughout the Palestinian territories, including the West Bank where they are dominated by Fatah.
Israel and the United States, along with some Arab countries, oppose Hamas's participation in the Palestinian security forces, especially in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Reuters