GAZA CITY, March 27: Incoming Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya said on Monday his Hamas government was ready to talk to the international community to end the Middle East conflict, but would not change its hardline stance on Israel.

Mr Haniya, whose Islamist group has been behind dozens of suicide attacks, told MPs the Palestinians had the right to continue the independence ‘struggle’ but stressed his desire for talks with the international community, including Washington, to end the conflict with Israel.

He also urged the United States, which considers Hamas a terrorist organisation, to alter its stance towards the Palestinians, and rejected threats from the West to slash funding unless his administration radically alters its hardline platform.

His wide-ranging speech to the Palestinian parliament had been due to be followed by a vote to approve his 24-member cabinet, but the number of MPs wanting to speak forced a delay until Tuesday, which coincides with Israel’s general election.

“Our government will spare no effort to reach a just peace in the region, putting an end to the occupation and restoring out rights,” Mr Haniya told MPs.

“We have never been supporters of war, terrorism or bloodletting. Instead it is the Israeli occupation that waged all forms of terrorism against our people in chasing them out of their homeland, besieging it and starving it.”

Israel has refused to have any dealings with a Hamas-led government and has imposed sanctions including travel restrictions, which forced Mr Haniya to deliver his speech to the Ramallah-based parliament via video link from Gaza City.

The Hamas-dominated administration is expected to take office on Wednesday, two months after the Islamist movement’s landslide victory in a parliamentary election on Jan 25 that sent shockwaves through Israel and the West.

But while holding off any suggestion of negotiating with Israel, Mr Haniya welcomed the prospect of continued international involvement in the peace process, in particular from the Middle East quartet.

“Our government will be prepared to hold dialogue with the international quartet about the ways to end the conflict and install calm in the region,” said Mr Haniya.

The quartet — the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States — is the sponsor of the largely moribund roadmap peace plan, which aims for the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel.

Both the United States and European Union have threatened to slash funding to the Palestinian Authority unless Hamas recognises Israel, ‘renounces violence’ and respects past international agreements.

Despite the Palestinian Authority’s reliance on foreign aid, Mr Haniya said there would be no caving in to outside pressure.

“The Palestinian people should not be punished for exercising their right to choose their leaders in free and democratic elections,” Mr Haniya said.

“Those who think that economic pressure is going to make our government collapse or undermine the determination of our people are very much mistaken.”

Given Hamas’s majority, Tuesday’s parliamentary vote of confidence should be a formality, although Mahmud Abbas’s own Fatah faction will vote against it. —AFP