Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Cairo on Wednesday for
talks with Egypt’s new rulers on the peace process with Israel and efforts to
end the conflict between his Fatah faction and Hamas.
During the four-day
visit, his first since president Hosni Mubarak stepped down earlier this year,
Abbas will meet with Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, head of the Higher Council of the
Armed Forces, and Prime Minister Issam Sharif.
Abbas is also scheduled to
hold talks with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa and Islamic and
Christian leaders in Egypt, the PLO envoy to Cairo, Barakat al-Farra,
said.
Farra said that Abbas’s visit to Cairo was of special significance,
particularly because the talks would focus on the Hamas-Fatah dispute, the
stalled peace process and the situation in the Gaza Strip in light of recent
tensions.
On the eve of Abbas’s visit, Palestinian university students
demonstrated outside the PLO embassy in Cairo to demand an end to the
Hamas-Fatah power struggle.