January 26, 2003	Sunday	Ziqa’ad 22,1423

CAIRO, Jan 25: The Hamas on Saturday branded as “unacceptable” a halt to anti-Israeli attacks as 12 Palestinian factions met in Egypt to forge a united national command.

“Our position is known: it is unacceptable to speak of an end to all forms of resistance against the Israeli occupation,” Hamas delegation member Osama Hamdan said.

“This rejection is both on the political and active aspect of the resistance,” Hamdan said in a reference to Palestinian suicide attacks against Israeli targets.

Two other extremist Palestinian groups, Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, also rejected earlier this week any halt to attacks on Israel.

The talks sponsored by Egypt opened on Friday in the presence of Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who did not attend Saturday’s discussions.

Egypt has proposed a 12-point document stipulating “a freeze of the armed struggle in Israel for one year in order to give a chance to peace efforts and negotiations” between Israel and the Palestinians.

President Hosni Mubarak hopes such a truce would bolster the chances of implementing a peace blueprint drawn up by top UN, US, Russian and EU officials, which stipulates the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.

But Cairo was not trying to pressure the Palestinians into accepting its proposals, the Palestinian representative at the Cairo-based Arab League said.

“Cairo has never put pressure on the Palestinians, it gives advice and lets them make their own decisions,” Mohammed Sobeih said, quoted on Qatar-based al-Jazeera television.

Hamdan earlier said the mood at the talks was conducive to reaching an agreement to “unify the action of the different factions.”

Maher Taher, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) delegation, also voiced optimism.

“The work will focus on the formation of a united national command allowing the participation of all Palestinian factions in decision-making,” he said.

“The key issue on the agenda is the reorganization of the Palestinian home from within, and agreeing on a common political program,” he added.

“Many Palestinian factions enjoy huge influence on the ground and without their real involvement in political decisions these movements will feel marginalized and will act at will,” he said.

Israel and the international community have criticized Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority for failing to reign in militant groups, such as Hamas, which has claimed responsibility for most of the deadly anti-Israeli attacks over the past two years.

Taher said that Arafat’s deputy, Mahmud Abbas, who is leading the Fatah delegation at the talks, knows that forging a unified command does not amount to “competing” with the Palestinian Authority.

The meetings are expected to run until Monday evening.