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 reconciliation talks in Yemen began Tuesday when delegations from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Party and the Hamas movement flew in for talks with Yemeni officials on ending their divisions.
The talks, based on a seven-point plan proposed by Saleh to end the dispute between the Palestinian rivals and rebuild the shattered Palestinian Authority, briefly broke down on Thursday but were back on after Hamas’ top leaders reviewed the final draft of a statement signed yesterday.
Azzam Al-Ahmed, deputy prime minister and leader of Fatah lawmakers in the Palestinian Parliament, and Moussa Abu Marzouk, Hamas’ deputy leader, signed the statement entitled “Sanaa Declaration.” Saleh called on rival Palestinians to stop what he described as a media provocation campaign by each side and acknowledged that “there are some difficulties” but that “the good will expressed by the two sides will bring great achievements.” Both Abu Marzouk and Al-Ahmed admitted the division between them benefited Israel.
But in Ramallah, Abbas commented shortly after the development from Yemen was announced that the Fatah side was only interested in the Yemeni initiative “for implementation,” not as a basis for dialogue. His remarks were an indication that much political wrangling still lay ahead.
“Resuming dialogue in the future will be only to implement the Yemeni initiative in all its articles, and not to deal with it as a framework for dialogue,” Abbas said, according to his aide Nabil Abu Rudeina. 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.
