Hamas, Fatah sign Yemen deal

Rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas signed a Yemeni-sponsored deal yesterday promising to revive direct talks after months of hostilities, but differences remained over the future of the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

The two factions reconvened in Sanaa earlier in the day after the talks, launched last week by Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, came close to collapse several times.

"We, the representatives of Fatah and Hamas, agree to the Yemeni initiative as a framework to resume dialogue between the two movements to return the Palestinian situation to what it was before the Gaza incidents," a declaration issued after the meeting said.

While analysts believe the decision to talk is an important step forward, there are still outstanding issues that could scupper negotiations, and they caution that previous agreements have collapsed.

The Sanaa Declaration, signed by top Hamas negotiator Moussa Abu Marzouk and senior Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmed, also affirmed the "unity of the Palestinian people, territory and authority".

The Yemeni initiative calls for the situation in Gaza to return to the way it was before Hamas seized the area in June after routing Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The violence left Hamas in control of Gaza and Fatah in control of the West Bank and entrenched divisions as the two movements vied for power and influence among the 4 million Palestinians in the two areas separated by Israel.

Fatah had said it would agree to direct reconciliation talks with Hamas only if the Islamist group first agreed to relinquish its hold on Gaza, home to 1.5 million Palestinians.

A Hamas official said on Saturday the group asked that the same condition should apply to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority has dismissed a Hamas-led unity government and arrested some Hamas supporters.

Differences over that key clause remained, but Ahmed said he was looking forward to Yemen setting a date for new talks to begin that would hammer out the details of implementation.

A senior Hamas official said talks would begin on April 5 with the first round being held in the Palestinian territories, but the Palestinian ambassador to Yemen, Ahmad Deek, said Yemen would issue invitations for talks there early next month.

Saleh had been pressing the Palestinians to begin their dialogue in April and said Yemen would ask the Arab Summit in Damascus this coming weekend to endorse the initiative as a joint Arab plan.

But previous Arab-sponsored efforts to reconcile the Palestinians, including a Saudi-mediated deal reached in the Muslim holy city of Mecca in 2007, have fallen by the wayside.

Cheney urges concessions

The Yemeni plan, which calls for a return to the framework accords laid in Mecca, also envisages new Palestinian elections, the creation of another unity government and the reform of security forces along national rather than factional lines.

US Vice-President Dick Cheney said yesterday that achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace would require painful concessions from both sides.

Abbas, who met Cheney at the Palestinian Authority's Muqata headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, said Israeli settlement expansion, military checkpoints and raids were blocking progress towards peace.

Speaking to reporters, Cheney said achieving US President George W. Bush's vision of a Palestinian state living alongside a secure Israel, "will require tremendous efforts at the negotiating table and painful concessions on both sides".

Earlier, after talks with Israeli President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem, Cheney said the US was doing its utmost "to try to move the peace process forward".

Agencies

(China Daily 03/24/2008 page6)