Fourth round of inter-Palestinian talks begin in Cairo
27/04/2009 15:22 CAIRO, April 27 (RIA Novosti) - The fourth round of inter-Palestinian dialogue between the Fatah and Hamas movements began on Monday in Cairo, Egypt's MENA news agency reported.
The conflict between Hamas and Fatah, the largest Palestinian political movements, erupted in June 2007, when Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip by force. Hamas has since held power in the enclave of 1.5 million, independent of the officially recognized government of Fatah in the West Bank, which is headed by Abbas.
"We hope that we will find solutions to the remaining problems during this round," MENA quoted Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman as saying.
Egypt plays the role of mediator between the two Palestinian factors, which until recently had no direct dialogue. They restarted reconciliation talks after Israel's assault on Gaza at the turn of the year, which saw some 1,300 Palestinians killed and 5,000 injured.
"We don't have any other route except through continuing dialogue," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said after the previous round of talks, which ended on April 2 without any results.
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