SIDON, Lebanon: This week’s meeting in Cairo between Fatah and Hamas leaders to discuss the implementation of a reconciliation agreement is set to accelerate the establishment of a long-awaited representative body for all Palestinian groups in Lebanon.

“We will end the thorny issue of establishing one representative body [in Lebanon], in line with the arrangements that will be made on Feb. 23,” Abbas Zaki, the Palestinian Authority’s Arab relations official, told reporters after visiting Sidon MP Bahia Hariri at her residence in Majdalyoun Saturday.

“After arranging matters in Palestine, you will complain no more about this issue [the absence of the representative body in Lebanon],” said Zaki, adding that the Palestinian leadership was making progress toward reconciliation.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal are due to meet Thursday, Feb. 23, in Cairo to discuss implementing a Qatari-brokered deal that they reached in Doha earlier this month.

Under the agreement, Abbas is to head an interim consensus government, ending years of divisions between Fatah and Hamas. The government would supervise legislative and presidential elections.

A meeting will be also held in parallel between factions under the Palestine Liberation Organization and Syria-based Palestinian groups.

The reconciliation has renewed hopes of achieving the long-standing goal of one representative body for Palestinian groups in Lebanon, which now number more than a dozen, some under the PLO and others whose leadership is in Syria. It is believed that one body would better address the socioeconomic and security situation in Lebanon’s 12 refugee camps.

Zaki said that Abbas is closely following the situation in Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps.

“He established a fund for [Palestinian] students [in Lebanon] and small projects to benefit camps’ refugees,” he explained.

Zaki, who is also a former Palestinian ambassador to Lebanon, discussed with Hariri the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories amid mounting Israeli aggressions, Palestinian reconciliation efforts and the situation in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

“Sister Bahia is a friend and is among those who are the most supportive of the Palestinian cause,” said Zaki, who conveyed to Hariri the greetings of the Palestinian leadership.