Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat- Khalid Mishal, chairman of the Hamas movement’s political bureau, stated during his visit to Cairo yesterday that “there are some external pressures which disrupted the implementation of the Palestinian reconciliation” but promised to exert all efforts to implement it and denied that some Hamas leaders were opposed to having Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas head the accord government.

When asked by Asharq Al-Awsat after his meeting with Arab League Secretary General Nabil El-Araby about the reason why he has not fulfilled his obligations to complete the Palestinian reconciliation within one year, Mishal said that, “the reconciliation’s dossiers and chapters began in Cairo, starting with formation of the government and the importance of completing it within a short period of time. But there were some external pressures and efforts which disrupted the reconciliation. Yet we are committed to it and will exert all the efforts to implement it in accordance with the Cairo agreement and Doha Declaration.”

He stressed that the “reconciliation is a joint process by all the parties and not limited to one party alone” and called for the quick implementation of the reconciliation clauses, starting with the formation of the national accord government under President Mahmud Abbas so as to be a national umbrella that casts positive shadows on the internal Palestinian situation and then allows for all the steps to be taken for preparing the situations on the ground, holding the elections, and reconstructing Gaza.

Mishal denied that there is a veto among some Hamas leaders to President Abbas heading the government and said the results of the Doha Declaration were underlined at the meeting of the movement’s political bureau in Cairo and asserted that the Hamas stand on the reconciliation process, forming the government, and President Abbas’s premiership is united.