Barghouti: Palestinians agree on many provisions in Algeria

Palestinian leader, Mustafa Barghouti, yesterday announced that Palestinian factions agreed on many of the terms in the Algerian reconciliation document, the most important of which is the PLO file.

Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative Party, said the document addresses all the critical issues in the Palestinian file.

He added that a “positive atmosphere” prevailed in the first session yesterday, stressing that “a large part of the document was agreed upon. Today discussions are being completed and the final statement will be issued.”

“We are very optimistic, as we reached an agreement on the core issues and how to deal with them, such as the file of the PLO, unifying the Palestinian ranks and other issues.”

Barghouti pointed out that the second session of the dialogue will start this morning.

Yesterday the first session of the comprehensive Palestinian dialogue was launched with the participation of 14 factions, at the invitation of Algeria as part of its efforts to end the internal division.

Since the summer of 2007, the Palestinian arena has suffered from political and geographical divisions, as the Hamas movement governs the Gaza Strip, while the West Bank is governed by a government formed by the Fatah movement led by President Mahmoud Abbas.

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