GAZA CITY: The Hamas movement on Tuesday warned that controversy over a UN report on the Gaza war could affect the Palestinian unity deal that Egypt said was to be signed in Cairo later this month.
“All the Palestinian factions, including Hamas, are angry at the Palestinian Authority after what happened with the Goldstone report and this could affect the arrangements for the dialogue,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said.
He however denied reports that Hamas added new conditions for the proposed deal after the controversy. “We have not set any new preconditions because we appreciate the Egyptian efforts and we are interested in completing a conciliation agreement,” said Barhum.
“According to Egyptian arrangements up to now, the delegations are due to go to Cairo ... and Egypt is to fix the date of the signing of the deal,” he added.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat of President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party confirmed that a deal is due to be signed on Oct. 26 “in the presence of Arab and international personalities.”
Egypt, which has been brokering Palestinian reconciliation talks, announced on Monday that Palestinian factions would meet in Cairo on Oct. 25 and sign their long-delayed reconciliation agreement the following day.
Hamas has been at the forefront of criticism leveled at Abbas, the Palestinian Authority head, for agreeing that the UN Human Rights Council defer a vote on a Gaza war report compiled by South African judge Richard Goldstone.
The Geneva-based council was to consider whether to pass the report to the UN Security Council and the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, but decided to defer its vote until March 2010 after the Palestinian delegation agreed to the move, reportedly under US pressure.
Abbas came under withering criticism both at home and abroad over the issue, but Palestinian officials said on Tuesday that he was now “seriously studying” the possibility of asking that the report be passed to the Security Council.
“President Abbas is seriously studying the possibility of asking the Arab and Islamic bloc to officially take the Goldstone report to international bodies, including the UN General Assembly and the Security Council,” Erakat said in Amman.
He said Abbas’ decision came “in light of the controversy that has arisen” around the report.
“We want to discuss the report in international bodies so they will take decisions on what emerged in the report, in order to ensure that the crimes committed by Israel against our people are never repeated,” he said.
Qatar said on Tuesday the Palestinians missed a rare chance by delaying a vote on the Goldstone report.
Sheikh Khaled bin Jassem Al-Thani, head of the Foreign Ministry’s human rights department, told Al-Jazeera television that the Palestinian representative to the UN Human Rights Council had requested a delay until the next meeting in March.
“We won’t be more loyal than the king,” Sheikh Khaled told Al-Jazeera. “The Palestinian decision was based on their wishes ... and member states could not take unilateral measures contrary to the wishes of the Palestinian Authority,” he said.
“There were many countries that supported (the report and a vote) ... it could have been adopted, but I think that an opportunity was missed and it may not come back,” Sheikh Khaled added.
— With input from agencies
