Palestinians won't reconcile without preconditions: Cheney

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2008

JERUSALEM (AFP) — US Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that the moderate Palestinian leadership will reconcile with Hamas only under certain conditions, including the Islamists relinquishing control of Gaza.

The statements came a day after Abbas's secular Fatah party and the Islamist movement penned a deal in Yemen to open their first direct talks since Hamas drove pro-presidential forces from the Gaza Strip in June.

"We talked among other things about the ongoing activity in Yemen as the Yemenis are trying to encourage reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas," Cheney told reporters, referring to his meeting with Abbas in the West Bank Sunday.

"My conclusion in talking with the Palestinian leadership is that they have established preconditions which...