GAZA CITY, 28 March 2006 — Palestinian Prime Minister-designate Ismail Haniyeh yesterday said Hamas was ready for talks with international mediators on solving the Middle East conflict, but the group would not cave in to economic pressures to soften its stance.
Haniyeh was speaking at the start of a debate in the Palestine Legislative Council (Parliament) to be capped today by a vote of approval of his new government. Hamas controls the legislature, and approval of his Cabinet lineup is assured.
Haniyeh did not explain how he planned to resolve the disagreements with the international community, which insists Hamas recognize Israel, renounce violence and stick to existing Israeli-Palestinian agreements. Hamas has refused to meet the demands.
Haniyeh told the assembly that his Cabinet was ready to open a dialogue with the Middle East “Quartet”. But the United States, grouped in the Quartet with the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, quickly ruled out direct talks with the group unless it renounced violence, accepted interim peace deals and recognized Israel.
Haniyeh said: “The European Union has provided a lot of aid to our people, and supported our right to freedom... We are interested in a strong relationship with Europe.”
His comments marked the first time Haniyeh suggested Hamas was interested in some form of negotiations, even indirectly, to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
However, he said the Palestinians have the right to resist Israeli occupation by force, and he largely referred to Israel in his speech as the “state of occupation.”
Haniyeh said he expected the EU to review some of its policies in the region, and exert more pressure on Israel.
Marc Otte, a special EU envoy to the region, said Europe was waiting for Hamas to change. “If this government has a political program that we can work with, we will work with it. If it does not, we will not,” Otte said, speaking on the sidelines of the Arab Summit in Khartoum. “We are encouraging this government to continue the work of the previous government for the platform of peace.”
Western countries have threatened to cut off aid to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority once the Hamas Cabinet is sworn in. The Palestinian Authority is heavily dependent on the tax transfers and foreign aid. Without a large infusion of money, the government could plunge into a devastating financial crisis.
Haniyeh said: “The great Palestinian people should not be punished for choosing their leadership in free and democratic elections. Those who believe that economic pressures will force our government into submission are wrong.”
He appealed to Arab businessmen to invest in the Palestinian areas to ease the financial hardships there.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev dismissed what he called “double talk” by Hamas, saying he saw no change of policy.
Raanan Gissin, an Israeli government spokesman, said Hamas had shown no sign of softening its positions. Haniyeh’s speech “is an effort to sweet talk us into accepting a terrorist entity on our border, and really a government which is a non-starter government.”
“I will not give this government my confidence because the higher national interests of the Palestinian people were absent, and there were only slogans,” Fatah’s Saeb Erekat, a veteran of earlier peace talks, said during the parliamentary debate.
— Additional input from agencies
