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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas, Fatah resume inter-Palestinian talks
2010-09-25
Which will keep their spokespeople busy until the next round of kidnap-murders.
[Al Arabiya] Representatives of rival Paleostinian parties Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and Fatah met in Damascus late on Friday to discuss efforts toward reconciliation, a Hamas official said in the Syrian capital, as Egypt released a top Hamas official after holding him for 10 days.

Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmad will meet with Hamas political supremo Khaled Meshaal, who lives in exile in Syria, Hamas political official Ezzat al-Rushuq said earlier in the day.

The talks will be the fruit of efforts by Meshaal after he met in Saudi Arabia with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who has been instrumental in past efforts by Cairo to end the dispute between the two parties.

Hamas-Fatah rifts
In the last general election in 2006, Hamas unexpectedly defeated the secular Fatah, headed by Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas.

Tensions between the two came to a head the following year when Hamas forces in the Gazoo Strip routed those loyal to Abbas's Paleostinian Authority, confining the latter's authority to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Egypt has made several attempts at reconciliation, but the last round of talks ended in October 2009 when Hamas refused to sign an Egyptian document after it was inked by Fatah.

Under the terms of that document, legislative and presidential elections were to have been held in mid-2010.
Posted by:Fred

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