By Abd El-Raheem Ali, IOL Staff

CAIRO, December 25 (IslamOnline) – Dialogue between the Egyptian authorities and the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement Hamas kicked off Tuesday, December 24.

They two sides addressed two major subjects related to broadening the scope of  dialogue to include other parties and hurdles Hamas accuses elements inside Fatah Movement of placing to hamper inter-Palestinian dialogue.

Osama Hamdan, a member of the Hamas delegation, reaffirmed that the movement would not go public with the names of those it accuses of stymieing the dialogue.

“We are not trying to personalize the issue but we have talked to the Egyptian side about this principle,” he added.

In exclusive statements to IslamOnline, Hamdan said the dialogue with the Egyptian side afforded detailed discussions on the agenda of the second round of dialogue which will only involve Hamas and Fatah.

He declined to elaborate on the details of the proposed agenda, adding it was not finalized yet.

The Hamas official underlined, however, that the proposed agenda does not include an item on halting martyr operations against the Israeli occupation.

He highlighted intensive contacts over the past two days to hammer out agreement on the date of dialogue, the level of representation and the dialogue agenda.

Egypt was very keen to not pressurize the Palestinian delegations and rendering the dialogue successful through logistic assistance, Hamdan asserted.

The success of the second round of dialogue the a prerequisite for expanding its scope to include other factions, he said.

He stressed that Hamas maintains continued contacts with three major factions, namely, Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (General Command) and Al-Sa‘qa.

Hamdan argued that this would make it either to include other Palestinian factions in plenary dialogue.

“The difference in positions is what renders the dialogue with our brothers in Fatah difficult. But through the first round of dialogue, sponsored by Egypt, a great deal of the ice was melted.

“It would take some more efforts but we believe we have gone a long way and are getting closer to a political understanding allowing development of the dialogue to include a big number of Palestinian factions,” said the Hamas official .

He said an agreement was not yet concluded on a specific date to launch the second round which, he underlined, would only group Hamas and Fatah.

Hamdan said that the plenary dialogue, envisaged to group all Palestinian factions, would also be hosted by Cairo immediately after the conclusion of the second round of Hamas-Fatah dialogue.