Hamas head Khaled Meshaal arrived in Cairo late Thursday for a surprise visit, during which he has already met with Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Araby to discuss Palestinian reconciliation.
The DPA news agency cited a diplomatic source at the Arab League as saying that Araby and Meshaal will address meetings between Hamas and Fatah held two weeks ago, which agreed to bring Hamas into the Palestinians' chief negotiating body and move forward on implementing a May 2011 reconciliation agreement signed between the two Palestinian factions.
State-run MENA reported that Meshaal will meet with a number of Egyptian officials to discuss the latest developments in the Palestinian political arena.
Meshaal arrived with a large Palestinian delegation from the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, where they had participated in an international conference against expansionary Israeli settlement policies in Jerusalem, DPA reported.
The London-based Al-Hayat newspaper said last month that the Syrian uprising against the regime of Bashar al-Assad has created a severe strains in relations between Syria and Hamas, whose political bureau is based in Damascus. Syria and Iran have long been allies of the Islamist resistance movement.
Hamas, though, insists that its relationship with Syria remains strong and it supports “the right of people to determine their future,” referring to the Syrian demonstrators, added Al-Hayat.
