GAZA CITY, 7 June 2003 — The Hamas movement said yesterday it had broken off talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas over his bid to bring an end to anti-Israeli attacks, setting itself on a collision course with the new Palestinian premier, who has vowed to end such violence.
The announcement was accompanied by calls for demonstrations.
Later, thousands of Hamas supporters staged rallies across the Gaza Strip vowing to continue attacks against Israelis.
And it followed reports that Israeli forces were bracing against the prospect of more attacks by Palestinians.
“We have stopped the dialogue with the Palestinian Authority,” Hamas founder and leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin told Reuters. “This is our choice and we have no alternative. (Armed) resistance will continue.”
He said Prime Minister Abbas made unacceptable commitments at the landmark summit in Aqaba, Jordan, on Wednesday with US President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in which they affirmed initial steps in the road map for peace.
“Abu Mazen (as Abbas is commonly known) does not represent us, and we refuse to meet with him because there is no point to it,” a senior Hamas leader, Abdul Aziz Al-Rantissi, told AFP.
“In undertaking dangerous commitments that the Palestinian people categorically reject, Abu Mazen closed the door to dialogue,” Rantissi said.
The summit in Aqaba, Jordan “declared war on the Palestinian people,” and the Abbas’ government was not doing anything for legitimate national rights, he said.
Rantissi said Abbas had caved in, effectively “fulfilling all the wishes of (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon” by “giving away historical Palestinian rights, notably on Jerusalem, the right of refugees to return and the freeing of prisoners.”
In Washington, the White House said yesterday it would keep working to end Middle East violence despite Hamas’ announcement of breaking truce talks with Abbas. White House National Security spokesman Michael Anton described the group as an “enemy of peace.”
“We will continue to work with the parties to try to bring peace to the region,” Anton told AFP after Hamas said it had ended negotiations with Abbas.
Meanwhile, another Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad, called for dialogue between radical Palestinian factions and Prime Minister Abbas.
“We want Abu Mazen to open dialogue with all Palestinian movements,” senior leader Mohammed Al-Hindi told AFP.
“He must explain his condemnation of our resistance and why he did not make any reference to the Israeli occupation during his speech at the Aqaba summit” on Wednesday in Jordan, Hindi said.
At the summit, which brought together Abbas, Sharon and President Bush to discuss the internationally drafted peace road map, Abbas had said there was “no military solution to our conflict.”
