GAZA CITY, 12 September 2006 — Palestinians agreed yesterday on the formation of a national unity government in a move that could end months of political and economic crisis.
President Mahmoud Abbas will dissolve the current government within the next 48 hours and charge Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas with forming a new Cabinet, officials said after the announcement of the deal.
Abbas told reporters in Gaza City that he and Haniyeh had clinched the deal after weeks of tortuous talks. “We have finished defining the political program of a national unity government, based on the national reconciliation document,” Abbas said.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the government would be based on the reconciliation document Hamas and Abbas agreed in June. That document stemmed from a manifesto drafted by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails which hinted at recognition of Israel by calling for a Palestinian state on land captured by the Jewish state in the 1967 Middle East war.
But Hamas’ own position was unchanged, Abu Zuhri said. “Hamas will continue to have its political agenda... we will never recognize the legitimacy of the occupation,” he said.
Israel said the new government could create momentum for peacemaking if it recognized Israel, renounced violence and ensured the release of a soldier captured by Palestinians in June.
— Additional input from agencies
