Excerpts: Fateh/Hamas reconciliation?Cheney:"Palestinian state long overdue"
24 March 2008

+++JORDAN TIMES 24 March '08:"Hamas, Fateh sign reconciliation deal"
Reuters
QUOTE:"Fateh and Hamas signed...deal ... promising
to revive direct talks"
FULL TEXT:SANAA (Reuters) - Rival Palestinian factions Fateh and Hamas
signed a Yemeni-sponsored deal on Sunday promising to revive direct talks
after months of hostilities, but differences remained over the future of the
Gaza Strip and West Bank.
The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is also Fateh leader,
said Hamas must accept to end its control of the Gaza Strip before any
dialogue could take place.
"We, the representatives of Fateh 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 by the two delegations after talks in Sanaa said.
The Sanaa Declaration, signed by Hamas negotiator Moussa Abu Marzouk and
Fateh official Azzam Ahmad, 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 territory in June after routing forces loyal
to Abbas.
The violence left Hamas in control of Gaza and Fateh in control of the West
Bank and entrenched divisions as the two movements vied for power and
influence among the four million Palestinians in the two areas separated by
Israel.
"We regard the signing today of the Sanaa Declaration as a new beginning and
the start of a new stage," said Abu Marzouk, whose party won parliamentary
elections in January 2006.
Interpretation dispute
An apparent dispute broke out hours after the signing, with Abbas' office
saying that the talks should be about implementing the Yemeni initiative.
"Resumption of dialogue... must take place to implement the Yemeni proposal
and not to deal with it as a framework for dialogue because this will not
lead to any result. We want the implementation of the proposal. We do not
want talks over its articles," it said in a statement.
Fateh 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.
Hamas rejected the statement.
"Fateh's comment reflects the presidency's lack of regard towards dialogue
and it gives an impression that its signature is no more than an act of
gratitude to the Yemenis," said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.
A Hamas official said on Saturday the group asked that the same condition
should apply to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where the Fateh-led
Palestinian Authority has dismissed a Hamas-led unity government and
arrested some Hamas supporters.
Despite the differences, Ahmed said he was looking forward to Yemen to set a
date for new talks: "We look towards implementing the Yemeni initiative and
fostering Palestinian national unity," he told reporters.
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.
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh had been pressing the Palestinians to
begin talks in April and said Sanaa would ask the Arab Summit in Damascus on
March 29-30 to endorse the initiative as a joint Arab plan.
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.
The Yemeni plan, which calls for a return to the framework accords laid in
Mecca, the creation of another unity government and the reform of security
forces along national rather than factional lines and then holding new
Palestinian elections.
Abbas dismissed a Hamas-led Palestinian unity government after the Islamist
group seized Gaza in June.

+++ARAB NEWS (Saudi) 224 March '08:"Fatah-Hamas Talks End Without Gaza
Agreement" Ahmed Al-Haj, Associated Press
QUOTE: "without agreeing on who will
control the Gaza Strip... said they will talk again"
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EXCERPTS:SANAA, 24 March 2008 Palestinian factions meeting in Yemen ended
yesterday five days of reconciliation talks without agreeing on who will
control the Gaza Strip, but said that they will talk again in the Yemeni
capital.
The Hamas delegation and the Fatah group signed a statement in Sanaa saying
that they "accept the Yemen initiative as a framework for resuming dialogue
to restore normalcy" that existed in the coastal region before Hamas'
takeover of Gaza last June.
Although yesterday's development reflected a failure of this week's
Yemen-brokered meetings, it was still a step forward in getting rival
Palestinians to start talking to each other.
It also raised hopes that Hamas would eventually agree to renounce its
control of Gaza, hand back the control of the Mediterranean strip to the
Palestinian Authority and restore a power sharing national unity government.
Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was present when both sides signed
the statement at a ceremony in Sanaa, said the Palestinian talks would
resume next month.
He didn't set a specific date, but Palestinian officials close to the talks
said the meeting would likely come as early as April 5.
"This is the first round of talks and we will help Fatah and Hamas to reach
agreement in the interest of the Palestinian people," pledged Saleh.
. . .. The Yemeni initiative calls for the creation of a national unity
government and the rebuilding of security forces loyal to a common
government rather than to factions. It also calls for Arab states such as
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Jordan, to form a council to oversee the
implementation of the Yemeni plan.

+++Saudi Gazette 24 March '08:"Palestinian state 'long overdue,' says
Cheney"'Agencies
QUOTE:"'long overdue and
the Palestinian people deserve it' ...Terror and rockets ...also kill the
legitimate hopes of the Palestinian people' "
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FULL TEXT:RAMALLAH - US Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday that the
establishment of a Palestinian state was "long overdue."
He was speaking at a West Bank press event with Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas.
"As President (George W) Bush has said, the establishment of a state of
Palestine is long overdue and the Palestinian people deserve it," Cheney
said on the latest stop in a nine-day tour of the region.
Cheney arrived in Ramallah Sunday after meetings with senior Israeli
officials aimed at encouraging peace talks revived at a US conference in
November that have made little progress since then. He said achieving
Israeli-Palestinian peace would require painful concessions from both sides.
Abbas said Israeli settlement expansion, military checkpoints and raids were
blocking progress towards peace. "Security and peace will not be realized
with the continuation of the settlement activities and the establishment of
roadblocks around cities and villages," he said. But Cheney warned that
Palestinian strikes on Israel, including rocket attacks, "kill the
legitimate hopes and aspirations" for a Palestinian state. "Terror and
rockets do not merely kill innocent civilians, they also kill the legitimate
hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people," he said
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Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA