Hamas accepts Mubarak's invitation to host Hamas-Fatah talks in Cairo

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Hamas accepted on Friday an invitation by Egypt to hold talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction in Cairo, in efforts to resolve the schism between the rival factions.

"I and all the brothers in the Hamas leadership welcome participating and will seek to make the dialogue a success," Damascus-based Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal said Friday.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, in an interview to be published Saturday, invited the two sides to meet for talks in Cairo. The invitation came days after Palestinian gunmen blew holes in the barrier wall along the border separating the Gaza Strip and Egypt, prompting hundreds of the thousands of Gazans to pour into the neighboring country in search of food and supplies. Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June after routing forces loyal to Abbas in fighting that killed dozens of Palestinians.

The rift between Hamas and Fatah widened in November after Abbas agreed to re-launch peace talks with Israel at a United States-hosted peace conference that convened in Annapolis, Maryland.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/948240.html

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1. Abbas: No talks with Hamas despite Gaza border chaos

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday stuck to his tough conditions for resuming contacts with Hamas, despite attempts by Egypt to bring the rivals together to solve the growing chaos on the Gaza-Egypt border.

In a speech Saturday, Abbas denounced the Hamas takeover of Gaza as a crime and said the Islamic militants must reverse these steps if they want to resume talks with him.

On Friday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had proposed in a newspaper interview that representatives of Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement come to Cairo for talks. Abbas made no mention of that offer, and instead reiterated his plan to have his forces deploy on the Gaza crossings, instead of Hamas. Mubarak's offer came as Egypt endured an influx of hundreds of thousands of Gazans through its border with Gaza Strip since Wednesday, when Hamas militants blew up segments of the border wall separating the area from Egypt.

Hamas on Friday accepted Mubarak's offer to host talks, while Abbas' representative in Egypt, Nabil Shaath, told reporters that Fatah has made no decision on the invitation.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/948240.html

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2. Palestinians agree to Gaza talks

Both Hamas and Fatah have accepted invitations to hold separate talks with the Egyptian government to discuss the Gaza border, which has been breached to allow blockaded Palestinians into Egypt.

Egypt is under pressure to seal the border, but is reluctant to be seen as shoring up a seven-month-old blockade imposed on Gaza to cripple Hamas.

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Hamas accepted the offer of direct diplomacy with Cairo, effectively challenging a plan by rival Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, to assume control.

"We are offering an alternative, which is the operation of Rafah crossing, and we are ready to coordinate this with the Egyptian government," Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official told reporters on Saturday.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/72539FB4-0FD0-4BD8-8C7B-DC4D87AB41C4.htm

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3. Abbas to press Olmert on lifting Gaza blockade, control of crossings

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will ask Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to end a blockade in Gaza and accept his offer to control Gaza's border crossings, Palestinian officials said on Saturday.

The two leaders are expected to meet on Sunday to discuss how to push forward with peace talks after Hamas breached Gaza's border with Egypt in defiance of an Israeli blockade.

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The fall of the border wall punched a new hole in a U.S.-backed campaign to curb the clout of Hamas and strengthen Abbas, nearly eight months after the Islamist group routed his Fatah forces in Gaza.

Abbas will also ask Olmert to lift immediately travel restrictions in the occupied West Bank, officials said. Israel has so far balked at removing its hundred of checkpoints that crisscross the West Bank.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/948099.html