Hamas, Fatah agrees to form four committees to facilitate reaching agreement in Mecca talks

Palestinian mainstream movements of Hamas and Fatah agreed on Wednesday to form four separate committees to facilitate reaching a final and comprehensive agreement, a Fatah official said.

"It was agreed to form four committees in order to make it easy for reaching an agreement," said Azzam al-Ahmad, Fatah bloc chief in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) who is participating in the dialogue.

The committees are: forming a national unity government, reinforcing the political partnership, deepening reconciliation and ending tension and re-establishing Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

The decision was made in a closed-door session Wednesday evening, said al-Ahmad, adding, "A third and final session would be held on Wednesday night, and the four committees would start working separately. We hope that within the coming few hours we would reach an agreement."

But al-Ahmad declined to disclose details on what is discussed in the closed-door meeting, saying that "it is still premature to talks about the details."

President Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister Ismail Haneya, exiled Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal, and senior leaders from the two movements arrived on Tuesday in Mecca, Saudi Arabia for the national dialogue.

The dialogue was launched on Wednesday morning. During an opening ceremony, leaders of both movements asserted that they are determined to reach an agreement on forming a national unity government.

The two parties were invited by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to hold reconciliation dialogue following two bloody weeks of armed fighting between their militants, where dozens had been killed and wounded.

Source: Xinhua