CAIRO — The Islamist group Hamas and the mainstream Fatah party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced Wednesday that they've agreed to reconcile, in a surprise Egyptian-brokered accord that angered Israel and left U.S. officials struggling to maintain their influence over Mideast peace negotiations.
The power-sharing deal, which was hammered out in a series of secret meetings in Cairo, includes the formation of a national unity government and a timetable for a general election next year, Egyptian and Palestinian officials said ...
The unrest in Syria played a role in the agreement. Hamas' exiled political bureau chief, Khaled Meshaal, and the Islamic Jihad militant group's leader, Ramadan Shallah, live under the protection of Assad. Shallah, who reportedly will join the other groups at the Cairo ceremony, was added to the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorists in 2006.
With Assad now facing a popular revolt that seeks to overthrow him, Hamas was forced back to the negotiating table for a Plan B, said a senior official in the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to comment publicly on the developments ...
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