GAZA, Sept 22: Hamas said on Friday it would not join any Palestinian unity government that recognised Israel, rebuffing President Mahmoud Abbas who said any future coalition would do so and also ‘renounce violence’.
The blow to Mr Abbas came after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, seeking to revive stalled Israeli-Palestinian talks, said she planned to visit the Middle East soon.
Speaking at the 192-nation General Assembly in New York on Thursday, Mr Abbas said ‘any future Palestinian government’ would honour all previous interim peace accords with Israel.
But Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and other Hamas members insisted a deal with Mr Abbas to form a unity coalition did not include recognition of Israel.
“I rule that out. The political thinking of Hamas prevents the idea that Hamas can be part of a government which puts the recognition of Israel on its political agenda,” said Ahmed Youssef, political adviser to Haniyeh.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar went a step further: “This is an effective recipe for a civil war because the Palestinian people will not accept that anyone confiscate their beliefs,” Mr Zahar told reporters.
In another sign of growing tension, Hamas’s armed wing, Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, threatened to take action against anyone who tried to ‘topple’ the current Hamas-led government.
“We may be forced to rise up in order to put a limit on all those who are seekers of sedition and infighting,” the group said in a statement.
There were several armed clashes between Palestinians loyal to either Hamas or Mr Abbas’s Fatah group in the Palestinian territories after Hamas won a parliamentary ballot in January, sparking fears of civil war.
UNITY GOVERNMENT: A deal on a unity government was reached on Sept 11 and Palestinians hope it will lead to a lifting of western sanctions imposed on Hamas when it took office in March.
Talks on the coalition’s formation have faltered since and Mr Abbas, whose Fatah party was defeated by Hamas in January elections, has accused Hamas of reneging on the deal.
The row centres on agreeing a political agenda for the unity coalition that is clear enough in recognition of Israel to satisfy the West but vague enough for Hamas to say it does not contradict their charter, which calls for Israel’s destruction.
Mr Youssef said a unity government would honour agreements made with Israel as long as they are in the ‘interests of the Palestinian people’ — a phrase that allows Hamas to pick and choose its obligations. Those agreements include the 1993 Oslo accords.
Mr Haniyeh told worshippers at a Gaza mosque Hamas did not believe in a two-state solution to end the conflict.
The Palestinian prime minister reaffirmed Hamas would accept a state as an interim solution on all land Israel captured in the 1967 war in return for a long-term truce with the Jewish state but ‘not in return for recognition’.
Hamas ultimately wants an Islamic state to replace Israel.
Senior Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said Hamas signed the deal on forming the unity government, knowing it meant honouring past peace deals.
Mr Abbas’s office in Ramallah said the president would return to the Palestinian territories at the weekend after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo.—Reuters
