The current peace talks with Israel will top the agenda of a Fatah conference scheduled for next spring in Jordan, according to Azam Ahmad, head of the Fatah bloc in the Palestinian Authority parliament.
The conference, which is intended to rebuild the ruling Fatah party, will evaluate the results of the current bilateral talks that were initiated at the U.S.-hosted Annapolis peace conference last fall.
This evaluation will impact the results of the conference, Ahmad said.
“If the sides fail in the coming weeks to achieve a breakthrough in talks, the majority in Fatah will push the party to reconsider this strategy,” he added.
The committee, chaired by Tunisia-based Fatah official Abu Maher Guhnaim, will hold its first meeting in Amman early next month to prepare for the conference.
According to Ahmad, recent statistics revealed there are 350,000 members of Fatah both inside and outside the territories.
In an attempt to reach a deal before the end of his term, U.S. President George W. Bush wants the sides to reach a final settlement deal leading to the creation of a Palestinian state.
Such a deal will also bolster Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud ‘Abbas, who remained dominant in the West Bank after his forces lost the Gaza Strip to the rival Hamas movement last June,.
The deal must find solutions to several core issues, such as final borders, Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem and its holy sites.
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In other developments both Fatah and Hamas welcomed an initiative by Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to resolve the crisis between the rival Palestinian factions.
The state TV channel said that Saleh unveiled the plan during a meeting in Sana’a with Khalid Mash’al, the political chief of the Islamic Hamas movement.
Mash’al confirmed that Hamas accepted the Yemeni plan, which calls for ignoring disputes between the two Palestinian factions and resuming talks.
Saleh also offered the Yemeni mediation plan in a telephone call with ‘Abbas and asked him to work toward "preserving Palestinian national unity to help the Palestinian people gain its legitimate rights and establish a Palestinian state," the agency added.
The initiative calls for forming a national unity government and rehabilitating Palestinian security apparatuses.
The crisis between Hamas and Fatah has been dramatically widening since Hamas’ seizure of the Gaza Strip last June after weeks of fighting with security forces loyal to ‘Abbas, who responded by dismissing the Hamas-led cabinet.
‘Abbas has since insisted he will not negotiate with Hamas until it reverses its seizure of Gaza.