Palestinian factions return to Cairo for talks

October 13th, 2009 Honduran factions resume talksTEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Honduras' opposing factions have resumed talks aimed at ending the crisis prompted by the June ouster of President Manuel Zelaya. The talks initiated last week produced some signs of progress before breaking off for the weekend.

July 9th, 2009 Top Israeli: No Palestinian leadershipJERUSALEM — A top aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says there is no Palestinian leadership and he doubts there will be true peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The statement by National Security Council chief Uzi Arad raises new questions about how Israel intends to proceed with efforts to renew stalled peace talks.

July 1st, 2009 GAZA/CAIRO - Leaders of rival Fatah and Islamic Hamas movement failed to overcome their disputes and reach an agreement by a July 7 deadline set by Cairo, and have agreed to hold a seventh round of dialogue in Cairo July 25, officials said Tuesday. Fatah negotiator Zakareya el-Agha told the Palestinian news agency Wafa of President Mahmoud Abbas that a sixth round of inter-reconciliation dialogue had ended without agreement.

April 9th, 2009 GAZA - Leaders of the rival Hamas and Fatah movements held a meeting in Hamas-ruled Gaza Wednesday to discuss reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and mutual reconciliation. The meeting between the two movements' leaders is the first of its kind since Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007 following weeks of bloodshed between the two groups' warring militants.

March 19th, 2009 GAZA CITY/CAIRO - Palestinian factions had agreed in Cairo that the unity government they are trying to form will be a transitional one that would prepare for new elections to be held no later than Jan 25, 2010, Hamas has said. But the sides had reached no breakthrough Wednesday on the government's platform, with the main point of disagreement remaining whether it should endorse past interim peace deals signed by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), expressing recognition of Israel and calling for a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict.

March 17th, 2009 TEL AVIV - Talks between Israel and Hamas in Cairo over a prisoner exchange failed to reach an agreement, Israeli media reports said. The office of outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said late Monday that the talks collapsed because Hamas was making excessive demands and hardened its stance.

March 16th, 2009 GAZA - The Palestinian Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, Sunday accused its rival Fatah movement of blocking the progress of the unity talks the factions hold in Cairo. Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas, said that Fatah still crack down against Hamas's supporters in West Bank.

March 15th, 2009 GAZA CITY - Palestinian reconciliation negotiators signed an agreement in Cairo to prohibit fighting or the use of weapons to settle internal disputes, a Palestinian academic said Saturday. The agreement was ratified as rival Palestinian factions continued intense talks to reach an agreement on broader issues such as the formation of a unity government to replace the Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip and the Western-backed government in the West Bank formed by President Mahmoud Abbas of the Fatah movement.

March 7th, 2009 RAMALLAH - Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad Saturday said he has submitted his resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas. Informed sources said that Fayyad made the decision in order to pave the way for reconciliation ahead of talks between the Islamic Hamas movement and Abbas' secular Fatah due in Cairo March 10.

February 27th, 2009 CAIRO - Rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah started national unity talks in Cairo Thursday to overcome a bitter split between rival governments in the West bank and Gaza. The Cairo meeting, sponsored by Egyptian intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman, urged Palestinian factions to overcome their disputes and focus on the best interests of the Palestinian people.

February 12th, 2009 CAIRO - Hamas has accepted an 18-month truce with Israel in the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian MENA news agency reported Friday. 'We agreed to the truce with the Israeli side for one year and a half,' Hamas politburo deputy chief Moussa Abu-Marzouk said in a statement, adding that Gaza's six border crossings should be re-opened and the Jewish country must 'stop military actions and aggressions in all forms'.

February 1st, 2009 BEIRUT/CAIRO - Hamas representatives Monday denied they had agreed to a one-year truce with Israel. The Lebanon-based spokesman of the Palestinian movement Hamas, Osama Hamdan, reiterated the movement's stance that there could be no long-term peace agreement before the Egyptian and Israeli blockade of Gaza was lifted, contradicting remarks made by a Gaza-based Hamas representative Sunday.

January 24th, 2009 GAZA - Hamas movement's leaders Sunday rejected a long-term ceasefire agreement with Israel, saying that only a ceasefire for a limited period of time was acceptable. Ismail Radwan, a senior Hamas leader in Gaza, told reporters here that the Hamas delegation heading to Cairo was 'not to agree on a long-term ceasefire, but to discuss the reinforcing of the truce between Israel and Gaza factions.' 'The talks in Cairo aim at reaching a limited ceasefire that doesn't exceed one year, then we can re-discuss it before it ends,' Radwan said, adding that 'reopening the crossings and rebuilding Gaza will be issues to be discussed.' 'We won't accept a long term truce that kills the armed resistance, because resistance is a legal right for the Palestinian people as long as there is an occupation,' he added.

January 24th, 2009 CAIRO - Egyptian officials were Sunday meeting with representatives of Hamas and other Palestinian factions in talks aimed at turning a one-week ceasefire into a durable truce, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency said. Speaking to the satellite news network al-Arabiya, Ayman Taha, a representative of Hamas from Gaza, said that the group would not agree to an open-ended truce, but was prepared to negotiate an 18-month ceasefire.

January 15th, 2009 CAIRO - Egypt and the Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas have agreed to a five-step plan that calls for a ceasefire as of Saturday, an Arab newspaper reported Friday as a senior Israeli official arrived for talks in Cairo. The pan-Arab Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper, quoting Egyptian officials, said Egypt and Hamas have agreed to the Egyptian truce initiative, which now needs the approval of Israel.