Leaders meet before Palestinian coalition talks

Rival Palestinian delegations met in the dark hours of the morning as they prepared for crucial talks in the Saudi holy city Macca today on ending their bloody street battles and resuming the peace process with Israel.

Saudi King Abdullah will formally open the talks between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of the moderate Fatah party and the hard-line Hamas delegation, led by its exiled leader Khaled Mashaal, later today.

The king’s initiation of the negotiations and his choice of venue – a palace overlooking the revered Islamic shrine, the Kaaba – show the Saudis' strong desire to produce a breakthrough in the Palestinian conflict, which Arabs have long accused their leaders of neglecting.

The king held separate talks with the two delegations after their arrival in Jiddah yesterday.

At about midnight, Hamas leader Mashaal, Palestinian Prime Ministers Ismail Haniyeh and other members of the Hamas delegation called on President Abbas in Jiddah, Hamas delegate Abdel Rahman Zaidan said.

“The meeting was positive,” said Zaidan. “It is clear from the Fatah delegation that Abu Mazen (Abbas) has the intention to reach a deal as they came with full authority from the Fatah Revolutionary Council.

“From our side, we came determined to reach a deal and to turn the page on division and violence,” said Zaidan, who is the Palestinian public works minister.

This morning the two delegations drove to Mecca where the talks were due to begin at the al-Safa palace in the afternoon.

It was not clear whether the Saudis would chair the talks or even attend them. The Saudis have said repeatedly there will be no outside interference in the negotiations.

But a press spokesman for Abbas, Nabil Amr, said the Fatah delegation wanted the Saudi king to play a role.

“We asked him to intervene because he has the respect of the two parties,” Amr said.

Hamas and Fatah have held numerous discussions on a coalition government since the fall, but talks have foundered on the composition of the government and its relationship to agreements signed with Israel.

Hamas has long refused to recognise Israel and the peace accords signed between it and the Palestine Liberation Organisation, of which Fatah is the major member.

The political failure has exacerbated the rivalry. Four days of gunbattles between Fatah and Hamas fighters killed more than 30 people and wounded over 200 others until a ceasefire took hold on Sunday evening.

Amr said an agreement was certainly within reach in the talks, which are open-ended.

“The negotiations will not start from zero,” said Amr. “We will build on what we have agreed on before, particularly with regard to the political program (of the coalition government), who holds the Interior Ministry, and the composition of the government.”

The deal is vital for any resumption of the peace process. Israel has refused to talk to the Hamas-led government since it took power after the January 2006 elections.

Agreement would also be a big step toward the lifting of the financial embargo that the West imposed on the Hamas government, because of its position on Israel, which has left thousands of Palestinian civil servant unpaid for months.

In a sign of the general hope that the Mecca talks will deliver a breakthrough, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert announced yesterday that he, Abbas and US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice will meet on February 19 in Jerusalem.

Abbas wants an agreement in which Hamas will somehow recognise the peace accords with Israel, and which will allow a resumption of the aid on which the Palestinian civil service depends.

But, looking down the road, Hamas has real worries about a Mecca agreement might lead to in negotiations with Israel.

“Who can guarantee that we will not be making a mistake if we give concessions, as the PLO has done” a member of the Hamas delegation, Mohammed Nazal, said.

“Will we get an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem is its capital?” he said, referring to the long-cherished goals of both Fatah and Hamas.

The talks are also a test of Saudi diplomacy. Normally the kingdom prefers to work behind the scenes, but it is taking an assertive role in trying to resolve the Palestinian conflict, as well as the war in Iraq and the dispute in Lebanon.

The Saudis fear that the Shiite-Sunni tension reflected in the Iraqi and Lebanese disputes could erupt and destabilise the whole region. The kingdom itself has a significant Shiite minority.

The Saudis also want to stem the influence of mainly Shiite Iran, its long-time rival, which has a hand in all three crises. Iran has funnelled millions of dollars to Hamas and Hezbollah and has enormous influence among the Shiite parties in Iraq. As a sign of its concern, Saudi Arabia has even opened contacts with Iran to cooperate in easing tensions in Iraq and Lebanon.

At the same time, Saudi Arabia sees the revival of the Israeli-Arab peace process as vital to calming the Mideast.

“What’s going on in the land of Palestine serves only the enemies of the Islamic nation,” the king told Abbas on Tuesday, according to the Saudi News Agency.