GAZA, Feb 21: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked Hamas prime minister-designate Ismail Haniyeh on Tuesday to form a government, officials said. At a meeting in Gaza, Mr Abbas handed a letter of accreditation to Mr Haniyeh, a 43-year-old Gazan seen by many Palestinians as a pragmatist, formally appointing him to put together an administration.

Mr Haniyeh will have up to five weeks to do so.

Hamas, which is dedicated to Israel’s destruction, crushed Mr Abbas’s Fatah faction in the Jan 25 parliamentary election on a platform of rooting out corruption in the Palestinian Authority.

Mahmoud Abbas has urged Hamas to follow his guidelines and recognise past Palestinian peace deals with Israel and commit itself to seeking statehood through diplomacy.

The militant group has rejected talks with Israel and said it had a right to pursue armed resistance against the Jewish state. Hamas said it hoped to form a broad coalition with other factions.

Israel says it cannot consider dealing with Hamas until it ‘renounces violence’, recognised its right to exist and accepted past interim peace accords.

—Reuters