RAMALLAH, March 11: Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas has rejected Hamas’s proposed government program because “it does not meet his demands and those of the international community on relations with Israel,” a senior official close to Abbas said on Saturday.

That brought a quick denial from Hamas, with a spokesman saying the claim was “not correct.”

Abbas “rejected the Hamas government programme which was presented to him by prime minister-designate Ismail Haniya because the principal political points in it have to be clear for the international community,” the Palestinian official said, asking not to be identified.

They also “have to respect the decisions of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the programme of President Abbas which is based on peace,” he added.

“Negotiations are the way to peace between Israel and the Palestinians.”

Abbas gave Hamas two weeks to change its programme in accordance with his demands, the official added.

Under the Palestinian Basic Law, Haniya had three weeks to form a government with the option of a 14-day extension of he required extra time to nail down a line-up and win parliamentary approval for it.

That would give him until March 28 — the same day as a scheduled general election in Israel.

On February 21, Abbas formally tasked Haniya with forming the next cabinet following the radical Islamist faction’s massive victory in the Palestinian general election on January 25.

Since then, Haniya has consulted with a number of factions, most notably Abbas’s own Fatah, with whom it has still not been able to reach agreement on joining a Hamas-led coalition.

Abbas met with Haniya on Friday and received from him a letter spelling out Hamas’s proposed programme. No details of the letter were revealed at the time, nor were they by the official speaking to AFP.

Haniya spoke to journalists in Gaza City on Saturday before word came out from Ramallah, and could not immediately be reached.

But Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhari said the claim was false, and accused someone in the Palestinian Authority of trying to sour relations between Abbas and Hamas.

“Some official in the Palestinian Authority is trying to make the atmosphere between Hamas and Abbas tense when they make such a statement, which is not correct,” he told AFP.

Meanwhile, Haniya reaffirmed his commitment to a government of national unity and said consultations “among Palestinian groups — Islamic and national — and with all blocs in the parliament” have entered the final stage.

He said Hamas wants a “joint cabinet from all groups” including Fatah. “We want a political partnership and for everybody to take complete responsibility for the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause.”

The incoming Palestinian government will mark the start of an unprecedented period of cohabitation between a Palestinian Authority president from Fatah and a Hamas-dominated cabinet.

Significant political differences separate Fatah, which is committed to a negotiated solution to the Middle East conflict with Israel, and Hamas, which champions the armed struggle and refuses to recognize the Jewish state’s right to exist.

Hamas trounced Fatah at the ballot box on January 25, winning 74 out of the 132 seats in parliament against just 45 for Abbas’s movement.

The election ended Fatah’s monopoly of power since the Palestinian Authority was created in 1994.—AFP