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| By israelinsider staff and partners September 22, 2006 |
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The Palestinians' ruling Hamas group will not join a planned coalition government if recognizing Israel is a condition, a close aide to Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said Friday.
At the United Nations on Thursday, the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said the planned national unity government between his Fatah Party and Hamas would recognize the Jewish state.
But Haniyeh's political adviser, Ahmed Yousef, told The Associated Press on Friday that "there won't be a national unity government if Hamas is asked to recognize Israel."
The two parties announced last week that they would team up to govern, in an effort to ease crushing international sanctions imposed on the Hamas government to pressure it to soften its violent anti-Israel ideology.
Their preliminary agreement says the new government would strive to establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel. While some Arab claims claim implies recognition of the Jewish state, it does not contradict the idea that such a state would just be a step toward destruction of the Israeli nation.
Coalition talks have faltered because the West and Israel want Hamas to clearly state its willingness to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept existing peace agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.
Yousef said instead of recognizing Israel, Hamas was prepared to agree to a "long-term truce for five or 10 years, until the occupation withdraws." He was unclear on what Hamas would do if coalition talks break down.
In the past, Hamas has demanded that Israel withdraw from the West Bank and east Jerusalem, captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel rejects that demand.
Abbas told the U.N. General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting Thursday that the national unity government would abide by all past agreements between the Palestinians and Israel, including letters exchanged by the two sides in 1993 that call for mutual recognition and the renunciation of violence.
"I would like to reaffirm that any future Palestinian government will commit to all the agreements that the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian National Authority have committed to," he said.
These include the letters of mutual recognition exchanged on Sept. 9, 1993, by the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, whom Abbas called "the two great late leaders."
"These letters contain mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO, renunciation of violence, and commitment to negotiations as the path towards reaching a permanent solution that will lead to the establishment of the independent state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel," Abbas said.
Abbas, who met Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Monday in the first working session between high-ranking Israeli and Palestinian officials in four months, also welcomed recent signs that Israel might resume contacts.
"We have heard lately from the government of Israel that it will abandon the policy of unilateralism and one-sided actions," he said. "This is encouraging, provided that the alternative is not stagnation or the imposition of facts on the ground, but rather a return to the negotiation table and reaching a comprehensive solution to all of the permanent status issues."
Livni struck a more conciliatory tone toward the Palestinians in her General Assembly address on Wednesday, saying the two did not necessarily have to remain at odds and the only way to resolve their conflict was at the "bilateral negotiating table."
"We have no illusions about the difficulties before us -- we must face them and not ignore them," she said.
She also reiterated their desire to reopen a serious dialogue, including with the creation of a permanent channel "to pursue ways to advance together."
Yousef said renouncing violence was a clause of the agreement underlying the planned coalition government.
Hamas swept Palestinian parliamentary elections in January and came to power in March. It currently rules alone.
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