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FOURTEEN Palestinian factions have signed a ‘national unity’ agreement aimed at maintaining Palestinian control over Gaza once Israel’s war on the enclave is ended.
The deal, finalised yesterday in China after three days of intensive talks, lays the groundwork for an ‘interim national reconciliation government’ to rule post-war Gaza, said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
The agreement was signed by Hamas, Fatah and 12 other Palestinian groups.
‘Today we sign an agreement for national unity and we say that the path to completing this journey is national unity,’ said senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk at a news conference in Beijing.
Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, one of the 14 factions to sign the accord, said the agreement goes ‘much further’ than any other reached in recent years.
He said its four main elements are the establishment of an interim national unity government, the formation of unified Palestinian leadership ahead of future elections, the free election of a new Palestinian National Council, and a general declaration of unity in the face of ongoing Israeli attacks.
The move towards a unity government is especially important, he said, because it ‘blocks Israeli efforts to create some sort of collaborative structure against Palestinian interests.’
Reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah would be a key turning point in internal Palestinian relations.
‘We’re at a historic junction,’ Abu Marzouk said. ‘Our people are rising up in their efforts to struggle.’
Barghouti said the war in Gaza was the ‘main factor’ motivating the Palestinian sides to set aside their differences.
‘There is no other way now but for Palestinians to be unified and struggle together against this terrible injustice,’ he said.
‘The most important thing now is to not only sign the agreement, but to implement it.’
The latest round of talks featured Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh and Fatah’s deputy head Mahmoud al-Aloul.
Following the signing of what has been referred to as the ‘Beijing Declaration’, China’s Foreign Minister Wang said: ‘Reconciliation is an internal matter for the Palestinian factions, but at the same time, it cannot be achieved without the support of the international community.’
Mustafa Barghouti said: ‘There are four basic elements of this agreement which are most important. The first one is that all the Palestinian groups have declared that they are all unified in confronting the terrible genocide that is happening in Gaza and the acts of annexation and the attacks on the West Bank as well.
‘Second there was the declaration of the establishment of an interim national consensus government which would be responsible for maintaining the unity of the West Bank and Gaza and would represent the body that would be responsible for Gaza “the day after” as they say.
‘This is an important step because it blocks the Israeli efforts to create some sort of a collaborative structure against the Palestinian interest.
‘There was also a decision that there would be an interim unified leadership and a call for the meeting of the leaders of all 14 Palestinian parties to become this kind of interim leadership until we reach a point where the Palestinian people can conduct elections.
‘It was reaffirmed in this agreement that a new Palestinian national council should be formed through democratic free elections for Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and outside Palestine.’
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