Palestinian factions met in Algiers Thursday to engage in reconciliatory talks and agree on a timeline to hold elections within a year, officials said.  

Among the participants were included Azzam al-Ahmed, the head of the Fatah delegation, Ismael Haniyeh, chief of the Islamist movement Hamas, and leaders or representatives of fourteen other Palestinian factions which have been working over the past two days on a reconciliation deal so that elections could be held.

"The Palestinians have been divided for more than 15 years, which has hugely weakened our cause," said Azzam al-Ahmed.

Ismael Haniyeh said that the talks have so far been "positive and calm".  

Senior Hamas official, Hossam Badran, said that both parties had "agreed to hold elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council, the presidency, and the Palestinian National Council within a year".  

The absence of Mahmud Abbas during the talks, while he was at meetings in Kazakhstan, initially triggered doubts that a draft reconciliation accord would be signed.  

The Algeria declaration was signed yesterday in Algeria's Nation Palace under the auspice of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and the heads of the Palestinian delegation.

The Algeria Delegation highlighted the importance of the Palestinian factions "taking practical steps to put an end to the divide and realizing national reconciliation in Palestine, as well as enshrining the principle of political partnership between all Palestinian forces via elections."

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It also called for bolstering the role of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), seeing as it is the sole legal representative of the Palestinian people, highlighting the importance of the Palestinian factions coming together and collaborating to make the PLO's work more effective.

One of the declaration's clauses required members of any resulting national unity government to abide by international law, a point which Hamas opposed.  

"The document proposed by Algeria was general and doesn't go into details," said Palestinian analyst Khalil Shaheen. 

Read more: Algeria to include Palestinian cause as top priority in int'l arena

Historically, Algeria entertained good diplomatic and military relations with Palestine. 

In May, Algerian legislators intended to introduce a law that criminalizes normalization with "Israel". Al Mayadeen obtained a draft of the bill, which was proposed by the Parliamentary Bloc of the "Society for Peace" movement to commemorate the 74th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba.

The bill criminalizes the establishment of relations with the Zionist regime and prohibits travel to the occupied territories and any direct or indirect contact with Israeli officials.

Furthermore, every Algerian citizen is prohibited from concluding, personally or by proxy, an agreement with bodies or people residing in the occupied territory, holding its nationality, working for it, or for its benefit, whenever the subject matter of the agreement is commercial deals or financial operations, or any other transaction of whatever nature, according to the bill.

Algeria has been one of the few Arab countries to reject normalization ties with “Israel”.

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