Fatah, Hamas adjourn unity talks

CAIRO - Rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas decided on Thursday to suspend Egyptian-mediated unity talks for three weeks in order to consider new proposals, senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath said.

“There are new creative proposals and each movement needs to consult its leadership,� Shaath said. “We decided to resume the negotiations at a later date, sometime between April 21 and 26.

Senior delegations from the Islamist group Hamas and the Western-backed Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas had met in Cairo on Wednesday to resume talks on agreeing a unity government.

It was the third round of meetings between the long-time rivals since Hamas, winners of 2006 parliamentary elections, seized the Gaza Strip from in a week of fighting in June 2007.

Fatah retains control of the Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The factions had agreed to form committees that would resolve their differences and form a unity transitional government that would prepare for general elections early next year.

The committees began their work in Cairo last month, but the talks were adjourned after they failed to agree on a new government, with Hamas insisting it would not commit to previous agreements between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.

Shaath refused to call the suspension of the talks a failure, saying “it was neither a failure nor a success.�

The stakes are high after a devastating 22-day war between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip over the new year.

In March, countries pledged 4.5 billion dollars in reconstruction aid to Gaza at a conference in Egypt. But many donors, backed by Abbas’s government, have said they will not deal with the Hamas authorities in Gaza.

The Middle East Quartet-Russia, the United States, United Nations and European Union-has conditioned dealing with Hamas on its recognition of Israel and commitment to past Palestinian-Israeli agreements.

Hamas, and some smaller Palestinian factions, say that is unacceptable.