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Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
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| By Associated Press November 30, 2006 |
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared Thursday that he has hit a "dead end" in talks with the ruling Hamas on forming a more moderate government -- and his aides said Abbas is done negotiating and will announce dramatic steps in coming days.
Such steps could include firing the Hamas government or holding a referendum on whether to go to early elections. Whatever the choice, it would deepen the internal Palestinian conflict and could ignite more violence.
Abbas made the announcement at a news conference with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who had traveled to the West Bank town of Jericho in an effort to build on tentative steps to achieve a Mideast breakthrough.
"We have discussed our efforts to form a national unity government. We have exerted efforts, we have worked in many directions, but unfortunately we have hit a dead end," Abbas said of the talks.
His efforts to form a unity government allying his more moderate Fatah Party with Hamas were designed to end a crippling international aid boycott and restart long-stalled peace talks with Israel.
But since taking power in March, Hamas has refused to accept the international community's demands that it recognize the Jewish state and renounce violence -- leading to an aid boycott that has devastated the Palestinian economy.
It was not immediately clear whether Abbas really considers the talks to have broken down irretrievably, or whether Thursday's high-profile announcement was a tactic to pressure Hamas to moderate.
The Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, denied the talks were in trouble. In a visit to Cairo, he said the negotiations had reached their "final destination," and that only details needed to be worked out. Haniyeh and Abbas have been at odds over who should control key Cabinet ministries, such as interior and finance.
But a top confidant, Saeb Erekat, said Abbas meant what he said.
"In my opinion if the president says this it means he personally will not pursue this any longer," Erekat told The Associated Press. "He will summon the PLO Executive Committee, or leadership, and study the options, anything short of a civil war."
Abbas, in addition to heading the Fatah Party, also leads the PLO.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, another senior Abbas aide, said the Palestinian president would soon announce "unprecedented political steps" in the wake of the breakdown in talks with Hamas.
He did not elaborate, but possible options for Abbas include calling a national referendum on whether to hold early elections or dissolving the current Hamas government and replacing it with an emergency government.
Dissolving the Hamas government would be fraught with difficulty because the Islamic militants control the legislature and would likely veto any alternative Cabinet Abbas would put forth. Additionally, polls show Fatah unlikely to unseat Hamas in a new election.
For her part, Rice called on Israelis and Palestinians to step up efforts to achieve a long-stalled peace deal. She came to the Palestinian territories just days after a truce took hold on the Gaza-Israel border, and Abbas urged her to persuade Israeli leaders to accept a similar arrangement in the West Bank.
Rice said the two sides should consolidate and build on the truce. "Hopefully we can take this moment to accelerate our efforts and intensify our efforts toward the two-state solution that we all desire," Rice told the news conference.
She also reiterated support for a "viable and contiguous" Palestinian state, and addressed Palestinian concerns about Israeli settlement expansion. Abbas aides said he gave her new maps and documents on such construction.
"No actions that are being taken now should prejudge the outcome of a final status agreement," she said, an apparent reference to Israeli settlement activity.
Later Thursday, Rice met in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minster Ehud Olmert, who had reached out to the Palestinians in a conciliatory speech earlier this week, in a final public break with his initial plan to draw Israel's borders unilaterally, rather than in negotiations.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Olmert's speech was intended as a message to Palestinian moderates that "there is a political horizon," meaning a resumption of talks is a possibility.
Such talks would likely be launched with an Abbas-Olmert summit. However, Erekat said such a summit could only take place once the truce has taken hold in both Gaza and the West Bank and once an Israel-Hamas prisoner swap has been completed.
Earlier Thursday, Rice accompanied U.S. President George W. Bush during morning sessions concerning Iraq in nearby Amman before breaking away for her meetings later with the Palestinian and Israeli leaders.
"Our government strongly believes in the two-state solution," Bush told a news conference in Amman attended by Rice. "I believe it's in the Palestinian people's interest that they have their own state and I believe it's in Israel's interest that there be a democracy on her border and therefore we're working to that end."
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