RAMALLAH (West Bank), June 4: Ruling party Hamas on Sunday came under mounting pressure to accept a national unity deal as Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas prepared to deliver on a threat to put it to a referendum.

The document, drawn up by jailed faction leaders, calls for a national government and a Palestinian state on land conquered by Israel in 1967, which if accepted by Hamas would entail an recognition of the Jewish state’s right to exist within the borders set by 1949 armistice agreements.

The initiative is the centrepiece of a national dialogue seeking to end a fiscal crisis and solve deadly feuding between Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah movement.

With the deadline set for an agreement looming in just over 24 hours and no firm agreement from Hamas in sight, a Fatah dialogue delegate announced that Abbas was already preparing the groundwork for a referendum.

“Abbas must be ready to hold a referendum because the deadline will end tomorrow at midnight (2100 GMT). We hope we will receive a positive answer from Hamas, but if not there will be a referendum,” Azzam al-Ahmed told a news conference.

He said Abbas had recently met the central elections committee, been in contact with foreign governments and formed a law committee, before another scheduled meeting with the elections committee on Monday.—AFP