The latest Arab initiative to restore Palestinian unity has unraveled amid fresh recriminations between the rival Fatah and Hamas movements.
The chaotic reconciliation negotiations, sponsored by Yemen, also served as a reminder that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas isn't exactly running a tight ship: His envoy to Yemen signed a declaration with Hamas without first checking with the boss.
Since Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza last year, the dispute between the Islamic militants and Abbas has gone around in circles. Abbas says he won't talk to Hamas unless it steps aside in Gaza.
Hamas refuses and instead offers new coalition talks. Backed by the West, Abbas appears unwilling to trade billions of dollars in foreign aid and the chance of a peace deal with Israel for vague promises from an enemy he deeply distrusts.
Israeli officials said on Monday they did not take the Yemen talks too seriously, but that peace negotiations with the Palestinians would be halted if Abbas agreed to a new power-sharing deal with Hamas.
"There would never be negotiations with a Palestinian government that includes Hamas," Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli Defense Ministry official, told Israel Radio.
The international community, led by the US, says Hamas will remain an outcast unless it changes course by recognizing Israel and renouncing violence.
Despite Abbas' reluctance to share power with Hamas, analysts say that with Israeli-Palestinian negotiations producing no tangible results, the president faces growing pressure at home to try to restore Palestinian unity.
Fueling Palestinian skepticism about Israel's intentions, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Monday that it was too early to remove Israeli military checkpoints in the West Bank, despite pleas from Palestinian leaders and the international community to ease the travel restrictions. Instead, Barak said he will soon take steps to expedite movement through checkpoints, but gave no details.
Israel argues that the checkpoints are vital to its security and that they have reduced attacks by Palestinian militants. The Palestinians -- and increasingly foreign leaders -- say the obstacles must be removed to enable an economic recovery and give Palestinians some hope.
Nabil Amr, an aide to Abbas, said Barak's unwillingness to remove checkpoints violates Israel's peace commitments.
"You cannot punish all of the Palestinians under the umbrella of security," Amr said.
Concerning the unity talks, Amr reiterated that Fatah won't negotiate with Hamas unless it retracts its Gaza takeover. The first point of Yemen's initiative calls on Hamas to do that, and Abbas rejects Hamas' position that the initiative is just a starting point for talks.
Yet on Sunday, an Abbas envoy, Azzam al-Ahmed, and a senior Hamas official, Moussa Abu Marzouk, signed a document in Yemen agreeing in principle to unite in a single Palestinian government. The document did not talk about possible power-sharing arrangements.
Al-Ahmed came under fire from Abbas aides on Monday for signing the agreement, laying bare the deep divisions within Fatah and Abbas' inner circle over how to handle Hamas.
"Hamas is trying to lead us to endless talks without backing away from its military coup," aide Yasser Abed Rabbo told the Voice of Palestine radio. "Hamas is giving no signs of doing so."
Al-Ahmed defended his actions, saying he had gone to Yemen with Abbas' blessing.
"We had an open mandate and we were in daily contact with the president," al-Ahmed said. "I think there are people who are harmed by reconciliation, so they try to sabotage it."
The disarray also has alarmed Israeli officials, who say they fear it reflects weakness on Abbas' part.
Fatah had dominated Palestinian politics for decades, but was trounced by Hamas in 2006 parliamentary elections -- the voters' punishment for what was perceived as arrogance and widespread official corruption.
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