An Egyptian source told the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat that the current round of talks with a Hamas delegation in Cairo focuses on four central issues: the start of work by the technocratic committee, "weapons storage" as proposed by the Egyptians, the tasks of the Board of Peace and the guarantees for the ceasefire, as well as coordination regarding the international stabilization forces.
The Egyptian source did not deny that there were disagreements over the issues on the table. He hinted that Board of Peace representative Nickolay Mladenov could arrive in Cairo if developments move in a positive direction. The source claimed that "Hamas is taking positive steps" and that its delegation has a full mandate to make decisions, in coordination with other Palestinian terrorist organizations.
"Growing pressure"
According to the Egyptian source, "There is growing pressure for the success of the round of talks in Cairo, especially given the presence of Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin, in order to help accelerate the reaching of an agreement." He revealed that "there are joint efforts by Egypt and Turkey, together with Qatar, to ease the pressure on Hamas, which could come from other regional actors such as Iran, which recently entered the crisis.
"There is urgency to reach an agreement on advancing matters in the Gaza file." Only recently, Hamas sources raised the possibility that the Iranian regime would incorporate the Gaza file into negotiations with the US.
Regarding the issues under discussion in Cairo, the source explained that the first matter was the start of work by the technocratic committee identified with the Palestinian Authority. According to the source, the second issue was setting the framework and key components of the weapons storage idea, and discussing ways to reconcile the principles of disarmament and weapons storage.
The third issue was reaching agreement on the new tasks of the Board of Peace, particularly with regard to guarantees. The fourth issue, according to the Egyptian source, was coordination among the relevant parties regarding the stabilization force that is expected to be established. The source claimed that several countries had already sent delegations on the matter, and that the participation of other countries was expected to become clear soon.
