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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says dialogue with the ruling Hamas party is over. (AP file)
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| By Associated Press October 4, 2006 |
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday that his agreement with the ruling Hamas militant group on forming a more moderate coalition government was off.
"There is no dialogue now," Abbas said at a news conference with Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa.
A preliminary coalition agreement between Abbas' Fatah Party and Hamas, announced on Sept. 11, "is over now, and we have to start from square one," he said, not ruling out the renewal of talks at a later date.
Abbas also said a new Cabinet must be formed to end a recent surge in violence that claimed 10 lives in three days. He did not elaborate, but Abbas holds wide-ranging constitutional powers that include the authority to disband the current government.
A Hamas Cabinet minister, giving a dramatically different assessment of the situation, said the two sides were on the verge of forming a government, possibly one made up of professionals, not politicians.
Hamas entered the agreement with Fatah under pressure from crushing Western economic sanctions that have generated widening protests against the government.
But talks foundered last week over Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel -- a key demand of Western powers -- and infighting quickly followed. The violence was the deadliest since Hamas took office in March and heightened fears of a full-scale civil war.
"There are many bloody events now, and we need to end this crisis as soon as possible, reach a solution and form a new Cabinet," Abbas told reporters.
Asked if he would use his powers to dissolve the government, he replied: "My constitutional authority will be used at the appropriate time...We are going to see how to deal with the solution. All doors are open."
If he were to disband the government, Abbas could either form a Cabinet of professionals, rather than politicians, or call new elections.
New elections would be risky because a Fatah victory would not be guaranteed. A recent poll showed Fatah would tie with Hamas if a vote were held now. The poll also indicated that voters consider Abbas less trustworthy than Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.
Public Works Minister Abdel Rahman Zaidan of Hamas, taking issue with Abbas' view of the situation, said the two sides were in "the final stages" of forming a so-called national unity government.
"There is serious thinking within Hamas to form a national unity government which is composed of professionals, basically, not political faces," Zaidan said. "This government would not be headed by a Hamas leader."
An Abbas confidant, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a government of professionals would be a way out of the current crisis.
But another aide to Abbas, known commonly as Abu Mazen, said no new government would be able to avoid recognizing Israel.
"What matters is the program of the government," Saeb Erekat said. "The program of the government must reflect the principles Abu Mazen specified in his speech at the U.N." -- namely, recognition of Israel.
Efforts to restart long-stalled peacemaking should not be derailed by the Hamas-Fatah crisis, Erekat said, shortly before U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to arrive in Ramallah for talks with Abbas.
"It will not harm anyone to move the peace process forward" in tandem, he said.
In previous stops in the Mideast, Rice has expressed U.S. commitment to reviving peacemaking and shoring up Abbas in his faceoff with Hamas.
The violence in Palestinian areas that Abbas spoke of continued Wednesday.
On Tuesday, a violent Fatah offshoot threatened to assassinate senior Hamas leaders, though it later encouraged gunmen to turn their weapons on Israel instead.
In the Gaza Strip, unidentified masked gunmen stormed two cell phone transmitting stations, opening fire and disrupting cellular phone coverage.
The gunmen first broke into the Gaza City offices of the Palestinian cell phone company, Jawal, and opened fire. No one was injured and no serious damage was caused.
Shortly after, gunmen attacked Jawal facilities in the nearby Jebaliya refugee camp, opening fire inside a building housing transmission equipment, then torching a transmitter and antenna.
Hamas militiamen arrested one gunman, but the others escaped.
The gunmen did not state their motives in either attack.
In other news Wednesday, Israel opened the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt for sick people and pilgrims headed to holy sites in Saudi Arabia during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The crossing was handed to Palestinian control, under European supervision, under a U.S.-brokered deal with Israel last year. Since then, it has often been shut down frequently after Israel raised security concerns.
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