Turning Words Into Concrete Actions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Middle East Progress
by Brigadier General (ret.) Ilan Paz - (Interview) March 27, 2008 - 12:17pm

Q: What is your current assessment of the Israel-Palestinian track since the Annapolis conference?

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Blair Urges Middle East Progress
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
March 27, 2008 - 12:10pm

Palestinians and Israelis must try to improve living conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to keep the peace process alive ahead of a visit by US President George W. Bush in May, Envoy for the Quartet of Middle East Peace Brokers, Tony Blair, said on Tuesday.   Blair also told the European Parliament that progress in the peace talks was crucial to build both sides' confidence in the negotiations and to show that Palestinians could take charge of security, and called for a new strategy on dealing with the Hamas -run Gaza Strip.

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Fatah Says Hamas Must Cede Gaza Before Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Ali Sawafta - March 27, 2008 - 12:07pm

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction on Wednesday ruled out talks with Hamas unless the Islamist group first cedes control of Gaza, casting doubt on a Yemen-sponsored reconciliation push. Fatah and Hamas, which seized control of the coastal enclave last June, agreed in Yemen this week to revive direct talks after months of hostilities to "return the Palestinian situation to what it was before the Gaza incidents."

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Top Palestinian Official Says Fatah Signed Deal Due To Mixup
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
March 24, 2008 - 6:00pm

Fatah signed the Yemeni-sponsored proposal for reconciliation with Hamas because of a mixup, a top Palestinian official said on Monday. The terms of the Yemeni deal, which was signed on Sunday, include rival factions Fatah and Hamas agreeing on the goal of uniting in a single Palestinian government. Senior Fatah official, former Palestinian Prime Minister Azzam Al Ahmad, signed the proposal on Fatah’s behalf, but top Palestinian negotiator, Ahmed Qureia suggested on Monday that this decision was hasty.

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Middle East Peace Plans Under Threat As Hamas And Fatah Talk Of Unity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times
by James Hider - March 24, 2008 - 5:51pm

Hamas and Fatah, the rival Palestinian factions locked in a bitter cold war for almost a year, agreed yesterday to open formal talks on reconciliation as part of a deal brokered by Yemen. Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Yemeni President, persuaded the two sides to come together to discuss ways of returning to the power-sharing deal in place before last summer’s fighting. The announcement came as Dick Cheney, the US Vice-President, visited the Fatah-led Government in the West Bank and said that the foundation of a Palestinian state was “long overdue”.

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Cheney Says A Palestinian State Is 'long Overdue'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Ashraf Khalil - March 24, 2008 - 5:50pm

Declaring that an independent Palestinian state was "long overdue," Vice President Dick Cheney said on Sunday that the success of the U.S.-sponsored peace negotiations depends on the Palestinian ability to rein in militant groups that favor armed resistance over negotiations.

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Hamas Refuses Fatah Demand It Cede Gaza Control For Reconciliation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
March 19, 2008 - 7:23pm

Hamas voiced willingness on Wednesday to talk to Fatah as part of a Yemeni reconciliation initiative but said the secular faction must drop its demand the Islamist group first give up control of the Gaza Strip. "We do not accept it as a condition to restore dialogue," Hamas spokesmanAyman Taha said. "[The Gaza Strip] is only an item that can be discussed within the agenda of the talks."

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Hamas Must Stand Down
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Osama Al-sharif - (Opinion) February 13, 2008 - 5:00pm

Hamas, the staunchly anti-Israel Islamist movement, which has been governing Gaza ever since its bloody showdown last June with the PNA, is looking increasingly like a spent force. It is not that the Palestinian National Authority has scored any meaningful gains in its peace negotiations with Israel since these talks were resumed in Annapolis last November. Nor is it a result of Israeli sanctions against the enclave that has left more than 1.5 million Palestinians without access to basic needs such as gasoline, food and medicine.

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Palestinian Revenge Was Inevitable
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ahmed Yousef - (Opinion) February 12, 2008 - 7:22pm

Last week's bombing in Dimona was the first martyrdom operation committed by Hamas in more than five years. For some time, we have been warning the world that the relentless pressure on our people would eventually tell. In the last two months, more than a hundred people have been killed by the Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip, including many civilians, women and children.

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Egyptian President Views Gaza Border Crisis, Iran Ties, Mideast
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News
(Interview) February 8, 2008 - 7:43pm

Text of report by Italian leading privately-owned centre-left newspaper La Repubblica, on 31 January [Interview with Egyptian President Husni Mubarak by Nicola Lombardozzi and Alix Van Buren in Cairo on 30 January: "'Israel Will Not Offload Gaza On to Us'"]

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