Palestinian dialogue drive gathers momentum-Egypt says will send mediators back to Gaza

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/features/article_1323044.php/Palestinian_dialogue_drive_gathers_momentum

Amman - An initiative to bring the feuding Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah back to the negotiating table appeared Wednesday to be moving to a higher gear with strong indications emerging that Saudi Arabia was inclined to put its leverage behind the move.

The Palestinian rift that deepened to unprecedented dimensions with Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip two weeks ago is expected to top the agenda of the summit talks scheduled later Wednesday between King Abdullah II of Jordan and the Saudi King Abdullah.

The Saudi monarch was due to arrive in the Jordanian capital for a two-day state visit at the head of a powerful government delegation.

According to the Palestinian ambassador to Jordan Atallah Khairy, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would also travel to Amman Wednesday evening for a meeting on Thursday with the Saudi king, whose country brokered the Mecca deal in February between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah.

The Mecca accord gave rise to a Palestinian national unity government in March, but the coalition cabinet faltered when Hamas drove Fatah forces out of the Gaza Strip, thus shattering the Saudi- sponsored understanding.

Abbas has vowed not to enter into dialogue with Hamas, but Amman- based Arab diplomats said Wednesday the Palestinian leader 'will have to yield if the Saudis put their weight behind a call for dialogue launched earlier this week by Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak.'

In an interview with the Jordanian daily newspaper al-Rai published Wednesday, the Saudi monarch dropped strong hints that Palestinian dialogue would be inevitable.

'I hereby issue an appeal to the brethren in Palestine to let reason and wisdom prevail, and to shoulder their responsibilities vis-a-vis the Palestinian people by ending their differences,' King Abdullah said.

'This situation should not continue under any circumstances because it harms the Palestinian cause, extends service to those who usurp the Palestinian land and could wipe out the hope in setting up an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital,' he added.

The split in the Palestinian ranks appeared to have figured prominently during the Saudi monarch's talks with Mubarak at Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday.

In remarks after the meeting, the Egyptian leader expected reconciliation to materialise between Hamas and Fatah 'within a few weeks' and said Cairo was ready to act as a mediator.

The Egyptian call for a Palestinian dialogue came for the first time during the Sharm el-Sheikh four-way summit on Monday that also grouped Abbas, King Abdullah of Jordan and the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

The Jordanian monarch has so far urged a re-unification of Palestinian ranks but stopped short of unequivocally calling for a dialogue between Hamas and Fatah.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt will send its security delegation back to Gaza "when things calm down" and then resume its mediation between Palestinian factions, President Hosni Mubarak said in an interview published on Wednesday.

Egypt withdrew the delegation on June 15, the day after the Islamist movement Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip from Fatah, and the Egyptian government said this was because there was no legitimate authority in Gaza.

Mubarak told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronoth: "The security delegation left Gaza and so mediation could not continue. But when things calm down the delegation will go back and we will continue to talk with them."

In other interviews he gave on Tuesday, Mubarak indicated a sudden shift in Egyptian thinking about the takeover of Gaza.

He predicted that Hamas and the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would have to come to terms when the two sides "come to their senses."

In the interview with the Israeli newspaper, he said that negotiations between Hamas and Fatah should lead to an agreement on a single Palestinian security apparatus and full powers for the president of the Palestinian Authority.

The new Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, insisted on Tuesday that Hamas must accept his government's authority before it will consider calls for negotiations.

Responding to Mubarak's proposal of dialogue, he told Reuters in the West Bank city of Ramallah:

"These are key principles that everyone has to accept for there to be any meaningful steps taken: First, Hamas has to relinquish any and all claims to legitimacy as a regime in Gaza. Second, there has to be acceptance of the constitutional measures taken by the president."

Abbas slams Israeli Gaza incursion as “criminal

http://jurnalo.com/jurnalo/storyPage.do?story_id=44492

“Wednesday 27 June 2007 13:35Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas slammed Wednesday the latest Israeli military incursion into the Gaza Strip, in which 12 people had been killed by early afternoon.”We strongly condemn all these criminal acts against our people in the Gaza Strip and West Bank,” he said while meeting visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

“I want to stress that we are against all these useless missiles coming form here and there,” he added, in probable reference to the makeshift rockets Palestinian militants fire from the Gaza Strip at nearby Israeli towns and villages. dpa jab sc

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I won't be at all surprised to see Fatah and Hamas kiss and make up within a few months. The important thing is that the aid is flowing, and that's been accomplished.

The idea that Mubarak could serve as a mediator is laughable. In Egypt he continues to stomp on the Muslim Brotherhood, and thus Hamas, and Egypt has never really offered aid and comfort to the PA. Finally, it funds neither PA nor Hamas. Egypt is determined to play a role because it sees itself as the fulcrum in any situation. Others see Egypt as it is, a fascist military dictatorship whose aging leader is determined to pass power to his simpleton of a son.

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