Azerbaijan, Baku, June 21 / Trend, A. Taghiyeva /
FATAH and HAMAS are experiencing serious differences as each side attempts to pursue its goals while establishing a truce; this hope may eventually lead to a termination of the truce and the failure to form a government, Palestinian Ma'an News Agency Director Nasser Lahham believes.
"FATAH and HAMAS will not be able to form a government," Lahham told Trend over telephone from Ramallah.
A meeting of representatives of the Movement for the National Liberation of Palestine (FATAH) and the Islamic Resistance Movement of Palestine (HAMAS), scheduled for June 21, has been postponed for an indefinite time; consultations on forming a transitional government will be retimed, FATAH representative told "Xinhua" agency in Ramallah.
FATAH and HAMAS held a meeting in Cairo on June 14, at which they reached unity regarding candidacy of the future transitional government's prime minister and decided to announce the candidates for prime minister and cabinet ministers at a meeting on June 21. FATAH nominated Salam Fayyad to the post of prime minister, while his candidacy caused strong objections by HAMAS.
Lahham said before that Egypt mediated between the two sides on the issue of the prime minister's candidacy, but Egypt's efforts have so far been foiled.
According to the Head of the Egyptian Al-Ahram Research Center Yousri Ezbawy, a refusal to hold the meeting scheduled for June 21 indicates the severity of the conflict between the two Palestinian sides.
"The main contentious moment between the sides is as to who will lead the government", Ezbawy told Trend over telephone from Cairo.
Experts believe that another unresolved issue is whether the Palestinian government will preserve its intention to hold peace talks with Israel after the truce.
External forces also influence the process of reconciliation and the establishment of a government, Ezbawy said.
"The truce and establishment of a Palestinian government will not run without the intervention of countries such as Iran, the United States, Egypt and Israel," he said.
Ezbawy also added that if the Palestinian movements do not agree among themselves to form a government, an inter-Palestinian truce is doomed to failure.
Lahham also believes that the main goal of the truce is to hold general elections - parliamentary, and later presidential, and for this the sides must make a mutual compromise.
"FATAH and HAMAS, without external interventions, must come to a mutual agreement in order to establish a Palestinian state. Otherwise, the truce will fail," Lahham said.
A signing ceremony for the Palestinian reconciliation agreement took place in Cairo on May 4. The ceremony was attended by FATAH head, Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and HAMAS leader Khaled Meshaal, as well as representatives of the Arab League member countries, the Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's special envoy, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton and the OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu. The document on Inter-Palestinian reconciliation was signed nearly four years after HAMAS seized power in the Gaza Strip.