Hamas-Fatah Agreement Hits Snag Over Seating Arrangements

Talk about your shotgun weddings.

Seems like major logistical problems plague the signing the Hamas-Fatah unity government deal:

But the ceremony was delayed by a disagreement over protocol shortly before it began over whether Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal should sit on the podium with President Mahmoud Abbas or down among other Palestinian delegates in the hall.


"There is a dispute in the protocol over the seating of leaders," said one Palestinian source, who declined to be named.

"The difference is about where Meshaal will sit, whether he should be on the stage or among leaders of factions."

Officials from all the Palestinian factions had earlier signed the deal that Meshaal and Abbas were expected to endorse at the ceremony. It was not immediately clear why they we're [sic] not going to put their own signatures to it.

The seating agreement is of course merely comical.
The failure of the 'leaders' to sign the document that all the other factions had to sign is not a deal breaker either.

There is no question the deal will be signed. The question is merely how long it will be before they abandon the deal--or Hamas and Fatah return to killing each other.

Technorati Tag: Fatah and Hamas.