Hamas-Fatah, accordo al Cairo sulle forze di sicurezza a Gaza

Repubblica

IL CAIRO – Importante passo avanti per la riconciliazione nazionale palestinese. Le due fazioni rivali di Hamas e Fatah hanno raggiunto un accordo al Cairo per la formazione di forze di sicurezza congiunte nella Striscia di Gaza fino al 2010. Lo riferiscono fonti di Fatah, la formazione del presidente dell’Anp Abu Mazen estromessa all’enclave costiera da un sanguinoso colpo di mano di Hamas nel giugno del 2007, citate dall’agenzia egiziana Mena.

“C’è stato un accordo di principio sulla formazione di una forza comune alle due fazioni per lavorare nella striscia di Gaza fino alle elezioni (che devono svolgersi) prima del prossimo 5 gennaio”, ha dichiarato Nabil Shaath un alto dirigente vicino ad Abu Mazen.

Binyamin Netanyahu’s delicate balancing act with Barack Obama

Times

James Hider

When Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, lands in Washington tomorrow he will have to attempt a delicate and complicated balancing act. His performance when he meets President Obama on Monday will have a profound effect on the Middle East for years to come.

Palestinian Rivals to Try Once More for an Accord

IHT

By TAGHREED EL-KHODARY and ISABEL KERSHNER

Published: April 28, 2009

CAIRO — The rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas ended a fourth round of reconciliation talks here on Tuesday without success, but agreed to convene one more time to try to reach an accord.

Egypt, which has been mediating the talks, set May 15 as the new deadline for reaching an agreement, according to Moussa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas leader based in Damascus who participated in the meetings.

Fatah-Hamas unity talks suspended

BBC NEWS

02 April 2009

The two biggest Palestinian factions say they have suspended reconciliation talks for three weeks.

The talks in Cairo between rivals Fatah and Hamas, mediated by Egypt, were adjourned two weeks ago after they failed to agree on a unity government.

Fatah and Hamas, which control the West Bank and the Gaza Strip respectively, had hoped to reach an agreement by the end of March.

Policy, security and electoral arrangements remain areas of dispute.

“There are new creative proposals and each movement needs to consult its leadership,” senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

Mr Shaath said the talks would resume between 21-26 April, without giving any further details.

The largely secular Fatah runs Palestinian affairs in the West Bank while Hamas, an Islamist organisation, seized Gaza nearly two years ago.

The US, EU and UN say they will not deal with Hamas unless it rejects violence and recognises Israel.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7979637.stm

Israeli Minister Questioned by Police

NEW YORK TIMES

02 April 2009

By ISABEL KERSHNER

JERUSALEM — Avigdor Lieberman, the new foreign minister of Israel, was questioned under caution by the national fraud squad for more than seven hours on Thursday, according to a police spokesman, as part of a long-standing investigation into suspicions of bribery, money laundering and breach of trust.

Also Thursday, a Palestinian wielding a pickax struck and killed an Israeli boy, 13, and wounded another, 7, in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank before fleeing, witnesses and the Israeli authorities said.

Israeli officials said that the father of the wounded 7-year-old, Ofer Gamliel, is serving a 15-year prison term for planting a bomb outside a Palestinian girls’ school in Jerusalem in 2002. But there was no evidence that the attack on the boy was retaliatory.

Mr. Lieberman caused an uproar on Wednesday, his first day as foreign minister, declaring in a blunt speech that Israel was not obligated to continue an American-backed peace effort with the Palestinians, started at a conference in Annapolis, Md., in late 2007.

The police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, said the interrogation did not come as a surprise, but was coordinated with the incoming minister several days in advance.

Mr. Lieberman is part of the new government led by Benjamin Netanyahu and his conservative Likud Party, which was sworn in late Tuesday. Mr. Lieberman leads the hawkish Yisrael Beiteinu party, an important partner in the governing coalition and the third largest party in Parliament.

US stands by two-state solution

BBC NEWS

02 April 2009

The Obama administration has renewed Washington’s commitment to a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

As a row raged over the new Israeli government’s stance, the White House said Barack Obama looked forward to working with Israel’s new leaders.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said the government will not be held by commitments made by its predecessors.

A US-hosted 2007 agreement had, he declared, “no validity”.

Each side had agreed at talks in Annapolis to further discussions aimed at creating an independent Palestinian state.

But Mr Lieberman, an ultra-nationalist, argues that the accord was never ratified either by the Israeli government or parliament.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the world should put pressure on the new Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We want to tell the world that this man doesn’t believe in peace and therefore we cannot deal with him,” he told an Arab summit in Qatar.

Palestinian factions return to Cairo for unity talks

HAARETZ

Representatives of rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah returned to Cairo on Tuesday to resume talks on forming a “national unity” government, representatives of the groups said.

Egyptian-mediated talks between Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction, which controls the West Bank, were scheduled to resume on Tuesday, ahead of a broader meeting including more factions on Wednesday.

Palestinian Official Killed in Lebanon

NEW YORK TIMES

23 March 2009

By ROBERT F. WORTH

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A senior Palestinian official was killed Monday along with two colleagues and a driver when a roadside bomb detonated next to their convoy as they left a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, security officials said.

The Palestinian official, Kamal Midhat, was the deputy leader in Lebanon of Fatah, the mainstream faction led by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president. Three bodyguards were wounded in the blast.

The bomb exploded as the two-car convoy was between checkpoints outside the camp, near the southern city of Saida. Television showed firefighters hosing down the remains of Mr. Midhat’s car, a blackened heap of charred metal.

Some Palestinian officials speculated that the target might have been Mr. Midhat’s boss, Abbas Zaki, the Fatah representative in Lebanon, who is close to Mr. Abbas. Mr. Zaki had left the camp earlier.

Palestina: accordo Hamas-Fatah per le elezioni legislative e presidenziali

Corriere Della Sera

16 Marzo 2009

La data preliminare è il 25 gennaio del prossimo anno

Valido solo se si troverà un’intesa tra tutte le fazioni su un governo di unità nazionale

GERUSALEMME - Hamas e Fatah, le due principali fazioni palestinesi, avrebbero raggiunto un accordo per svolgere il 25 gennaio 2010 le elezioni legislative e presidenziali dell’Autorità nazionale palestinese. Lo riporta il sito web del quotidiano israeliano Haaretz.

OAS_AD(‘Bottom1′);

ACCORDO - Le due fazioni (Hamas controlla Gaza, Fatah la Cisgiordania) hanno trovato l’intesa insieme alle fazioni minori, nel corso dei lavori di uno dei sei comitati costituiti al Cairo nell’ambito dei colloqui per la riconciliazione nazionale. I comitati raggruppano i rappresentanti di tutte le fazioni, e l’accordo sulla data delle prossime elezioni sarà valido solo se verrà raggiunto un accordo complessivo tra tutti i gruppi sulla formazione di un governo di unità. Al momento permangono però divergenze tra Hamas e al Fatah sul programma di un governo di unità nazionale. Lo ha confermato Abdel Rahim Melluh, membro dell’esecutivo dell’Organizzazione per la liberazione della Palestina.

http://www.corriere.it/esteri/09_marzo_16/palestina_accordo_elezioni_f506ff42-1207-11de-b45f-00144f02aabc.shtml

Premier Quits to Help Unify Palestinians

NEW YORK TIMES

07 March 2009

By ISABEL KERSHNER

JERUSALEM — Salam Fayyad, the prime minister of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, on Saturday submitted his government’s resignation, saying he hoped that it would help efforts to form a Palestinian unity government with the Islamic group Hamas.

A statement from his office said the resignation would take effect no later than the end of March.

Over the years, Mr. Fayyad, a political independent and an American-educated economist, who also serves as finance minister, has gained the trust of Washington and the international community. The announcement was bound to raise anxiety, coming just days after international donors pledged about $4.4 billion in economic assistance for the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority and for rebuilding Gaza.

The United States pledged $900 million to the Palestinian Authority, a third of it intended for rebuilding in Gaza after Israel’s recent 22-day military offensive there.

Still, it was not clear whether the resignation would, in the end, be accepted by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who leads Fatah, the mainstream party that is Hamas’s rival.