| Submit your comments on this article |
| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Iran FM backs Yemen effort to broker Fatah-Hamas thaw |
| 2008-04-11 |
| Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki expressed support on Thursday for Yemen's efforts to reconcile rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah. "We back Yemen's efforts to reconcile Palestinian factions like Hamas and Fatah," Mottaki said after talks in Sanaa with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Yemen has "played an important and serious role to achieve unity among Palestinian factions. The Islamic Republic backs this drive," Mottaki also told reporters after separate talks with Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kurbi. The moderate Fatah party of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and the Islamist movement Hamas penned a deal in Yemen last month to open their first direct talks since Hamas drove Fatah forces from the Gaza Strip in June. However, the two factions started bickering about the meaning of the agreement within hours of signing it. Mottaki said he handed Saleh a message from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dealing with "economic and security cooperation" between Tehran and Sanaa. The Iranian foreign minister said his talks with Saleh covered developments in the Middle East, including Iraq and Lebanon. According to Yemen's state Saba news agency, Saleh said Iran had a major role to play in helping stabilise war-torn Iraq and he also backed Tehran's right to acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. Mottaki's visit to Yemen came less than a year after Sanaa accused Shiite Iran of backing a rebellion by members of the Zaidi community, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Relations have since improved between the two countries. The visit also came two days before the opening of the trial of 18 Iranians held in Yemen for trying to smuggle drugs into the country. They were arrested in two separate incidents in February after sailing into Yemeni waters. |
| Posted by:Fred |