Fatah leader President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas chief Khalid Mashaal are set to organize a meeting now the Egyptian presidential election results have been announced, a Fatah official said Monday.
The heads of the rival political parties were scheduled to meet last Wednesday. The summit, the latest chapter of the long-running reconciliation process, was postponed amid the Egypt presidential electoral run-off.
Fatah lawmaker Faysal Abu Shahla said he did not expect reconciliation between the parties to take much longer now that Muhammad Mursi has won the presidency.
Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mursi was declared Egypt's first democratic president by the state election committee on Sunday, prompting jubilation in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Hamas was originally founded as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Abu Shahla said he was confident democratic Egypt would continue to play a key role in the reconciliation process.
"Palestinian reconciliation will remain Egypt’s responsibility, and the question of Palestine is in the conscience of every Egyptian," he said.
Mashaal and Abbas were expected to meet to select cabinet ministers for a joint government to end the divided administrations run by the rival parties in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Rivalry between Hamas and secular party Fatah exploded into near civil war in 2007, the year after Hamas won national elections.
A May 2011 deal to reconcile the parties has repeatedly faltered.
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