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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (AP)
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Designated Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners March 26, 2006 |
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| Hamas supporters, including a boy holding a "toy gun", during a rally Friday. (AP) |
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday issued a thinly veiled threat to bring down Hamas' new government if it doesn't change its violent ways.
The tough talk comes just days before Hamas' Cabinet is to be sworn in. Western powers, while reluctant to create a humanitarian crisis, have threatened to cut hundreds of millions of dollars of aid if Hamas doesn't recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept past peace agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.
Abbas, who would like to negotiate a final peace deal with Israel, expressed his dissatisfaction with Hamas' political program in a letter to designated Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, suggesting it was liable to isolate the Palestinian people and give Israel an excuse to unilaterally impose borders.
He urged Hamas to revise its policies, then wrapped up the letter, e-mailed in translation from the president's office to The AP, with the following warning:
"I will exercise my mandate and authority where and when needed to protect the higher interests of the Palestinian people."
Abbas didn't elaborate, but the Palestinians' de facto constitution empowers the president to sack the prime minister and disband the government. Abbas is not expected to rush into taking such a step because it would provoke a crisis with Hamas, which swept Jan. 25 Palestinian legislative elections.
Abbas, who was elected separately last year to a four year-term, can force Hamas to modify its program, but he told Haniyeh he wouldn't exercise that authority.
Abbas, in Sudan on Saturday for an Arab summit, wields considerable power, but cannot impose his own Cabinet lineup on Hamas because it controls an absolute majority in the Palestinian parliament.
Hamas officials complained Saturday that they were not invited to attend this week's Arab summit, saying they had hoped to use the opportunity to garner support for the new government being formed by the militant group.
The critical task of appealing to Arab leaders for funding for the Palestinian Authority will fall to the outgoing government during the summit, scheduled for Monday and Tuesday
Representatives of the caretaker government attending preparatory meetings Saturday in Khartoum, urged the summit to continue an annual aid package that was agreed to by Arab leaders in 2002 to ease pressure on the Palestinians after the eruption in 2000 of the second intifadeh.
"We hope that the summit will renew financial support for the Palestinian people," Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa told reporters after participating in a meeting of his counterparts to forge an Arab strategy after Hamas takes over in the territories.
"We believe that our brothers will not yield to any pressure in this regard and that the financial support will continue," al-Kidwa said.
Although Palestinians have increasingly looked to Arab countries since funding from western countries became precarious after Hamas' electoral victory, the support extended has fallen short of pledges.
Despite the promise of $55 million a month in 2002, the authority has so far received only $375 million - equivalent to what it should have gotten in a single year.
Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, killed hundreds of Israelis in four years of suicide attacks the group suspended last year under a truce Abbas brokered last year. Although it has largely adhered to the truce, it has rejected Western calls to abandon violence and join the peace process.
Haniyeh said Hamas was not going to create a political crisis over Abbas' letter.
"All political differences between the presidency and the government will be resolved through dialogue," he told reporters in Gaza City after meeting with outgoing Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia to discuss the handover.
He did not mention possible modifications to Hamas' program, which doesn't acknowledge a 1988 unilateral Palestinian declaration of independence that included a recognition of Israel.
Abbas sent the letter two days before Haniyeh is to present his proposed Cabinet to parliament for approval. Haniyeh said his Cabinet would be sworn in by Wednesday, and not Thursday, as Palestinian officials had said earlier.
Earlier in the day, the British newspaper The Guardian, which obtained an early copy of the letter, cited unidentified sources close to Abbas as saying the letter was meant to "draw the battle lines" with Hamas, but also to warn Israel and the West that threats to sever aid and ties would likely strengthen the Islamist party.
"Under no circumstances will Abu Mazen allow it to be seen that a Hamas government is failing as a result of a foreign conspiracy. This works for Hamas," one of the sources said. "To avoid the perception they fail because of a foreign conspiracy we need the world to show that it is still willing to support the moderate line and not just cut us off."
The international financial pressure Abbas fears caused an independent Christian lawmaker to back down on his decision to join Hamas' Cabinet, relatives said Saturday.
Tannas Abu Aita of Bethlehem has decided not to accept the post of tourism minister after European tour operators told him they would not patronize his hotels and souvenir shops if he joined Hamas' government, his relatives said.
He was also afraid he would be stripped of his U.S. visa, they added.
Abbas to deny Hamas access to big investment fund
A Palestinian investment fund that controls hundreds of millions of dollars will remain under the control Abbas, a senior aide to the Palestinian leader said Friday - a move that would deny Hamas militants access to the money after they take power next week.
His predecessor, Yasser Arafat, set up the investment fund in 2000 to calm an international outcry over a crony's diversion of hundreds of millions of dollars from the Palestinian treasury. Arafat appointed his reformist finance minister, Salam Fayyad, to invest the money on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, but after Fayyad resigned to run for parliament in January, then-Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia took over the fund.
With the new Hamas Cabinet set to be sworn in on Thursday, Abbas intends to keep the fund under his office, a senior aide said on condition of anonymity because no official action has been taken yet.
It is not clear how much money is in the fund. An international audit in early 2005 said investments had brought the $900 million fund to $1.4 billion, but the Palestinian Authority has dipped into it to pay for ongoing expenses.
Abbas' control of the money would make financial matters even worse for the militants as they take over a government that has survived, in part, on international aid for its 12-year existence. The cash flow is expected to get tighter after Hamas takes power, because Western nations have threatened to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in aid unless the group changes its violent ways.
Abbas' plan to set up a border crossings agency would be another power play. The crossings have so far been managed by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which will now be run by the incoming Hamas government.
AP contributed to this report.
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