GAZA CITY, 21 February 2006 — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas began talks with Hamas officials yesterday on forming a new government which he said should recognize past peace deals with Israel and seek statehood through nonviolence.
Hamas, an Islamic group dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state, launched coalition negotiations earlier in the day with other factions but was rebuffed by Islamic Jihad, which vowed to press on its fight with Israel.
Abbas will formally ask Hamas’ prime minister-designate, Ismail Haniyeh, today to form a government, leaders of Hamas said after meeting Abbas.
Haniyeh will have up to five weeks to put together an administration. “The official request will be made tomorrow in the evening in a direct meeting with (Abbas), when we will receive the official accreditation to form the next government,” Haniyeh, one of the Hamas men who held talks with Abbas, told reporters.
Two days after becoming the majority bloc in Parliament, Hamas assured armed groups that it would not crack down on their fighters despite international pressure.
Hamas said its goal was to establish as broad a coalition as possible as it faced a halt in vital tax funds from Israel and a threatened boycott by major powers if it refused to renounce violence and recognize the Jewish state.
In a speech to the legislature on Saturday, Abbas appealed to a future Hamas government to recognize past interim peace accords and commit itself to pursuing statehood through talks. Hamas swiftly rejected Abbas’ call, but neither the group nor the president appeared ready for an immediate showdown. It has largely abided by a cease-fire Abbas forged with Israeli leaders a year ago.
During daylong talks, Hamas signaled its readiness for a long-term truce if Israel withdraws from lands it occupied in the 1967 war.
But the head of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service, Yuval Diskin, said a cease-fire alone would be unacceptable and called a Hamas-run state a long-term “strategic threat.”
In a bid to isolate Hamas, Israel on Sunday halted the transfer of tax revenues owed to the Palestinian Authority.
The UN special envoy to the Middle East, Alvaro de Soto, called the decision unhelpful and premature. Israel, which has long viewed the United Nations as pro-Palestinian, brushed aside the criticism, saying it was sticking to the funding cutoff.
In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan gave a low-key response to the Israeli edict, saying: “We’ll stay in touch with Israel on these issues.” “I think that our view has been spelled out very clearly, not only from our government but in the statement of the Quartet. This is really about Hamas and the choice that Hamas has before it,” McClellan added.
In a statement last month, the Quartet of Middle East peace brokers — the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia — said Hamas must reject violence and recognize Israel or risk losing vital aid when it forms a government.
“That’s the issue. Hamas needs to make the decision if they want to be a partner in peace,” McClellan said.
Earlier, a Hamas delegation huddled in Gaza with leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which signaled a willingness to join the new government. An Israeli military helicopter flew overhead as they met. The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) also suggested it was amenable to joining the coalition.
While Islamic Jihad, which has carried out several attacks in Israel in recent months, declined to join the new government, its leader Nafez Azzam promised to cooperate with Hamas “in the project of resistance to protect the interests of our people.”
— With input from agencies
