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Fatah ready to talk if Hamas accepts Yemen initiative
Fatah officials said on Tuesday they were ready to begin a Palestinian national dialogue if the rival Hamas faction accepts the terms of a Yemeni initiative to end hostilities between them.Delegations from the rival factions will meet separately with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh but a breakthrough seems unlikely in the absence of Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah. Hamas Islamists routed Fatah forces to seize control of the Gaza Strip in June. After the takeover, Abbas dismissed a Hamas-led government and appointed a new Western-backed cabinet in the occupied West Bank. The two sides have been at loggerheads ever since. "If the brothers in Hamas accept the Yemeni initiative completely in all its clauses, we are ready to immediately begin a Palestinian national dialogue, not just between Fatah and Hamas but all the national factions," senior Abbas aide Azzam al-Ahmed told reporters in Yemen. "The dispute is not between Fatah and Hamas... it is between all the national action factions... and Hamas. Hamas has been singled out ... from the start when it used armed force." The Yemeni initiative calls for the situation in Gaza to return to the way it was before Hamas seized control and for early Palestinian elections to be held, conditions endorsed by Abbas and so far rejected by Hamas. Posted by: Fred 2008-03-19 |
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