Hamas: We won't join gov't requiring recognition of Israel

www.haaretz.com ^ | 13:54 22/09/2006 | Aluf Benn and Avi Issacharoff

[Esther Ruth]

Last update - 13:54 22/09/2006

Hamas: We won't join gov't requiring recognition of Israel

By Aluf Benn and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondents, and Agencies

Hamas will not join a Palestinian unity government if recognition of Israel is a condition, a close aide to Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Friday. The comment appeared to contradict Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' statement to the United Nations from the day before.

Abbas told the UN General Assembly on Thursday that the planned Hamas-Fatah government would recognize Israel.

However, Haniyeh's political adviser, Ahmed Yousef, said "there won't be a national unity government if Hamas is asked to recognize Israel."

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.

Youssef said Thursday that a Quartet statement released earlier in the day opened the way for dialogue with a Palestinian unity government and for the renewal of ties and a lifting of the economic boycott of the Palestinian Authority.

[Esther Ruth]

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1157913681211&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

Sep. 22, 2006 0:50 | Updated Sep. 22, 2006 13:49

Hamas official denies unity gov't will recognize Israel

By JPOST.COM STAFF



"A Palestinian Authority unity government will not be established if it obligates Hamas to recognize Israel," PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's political adviser, Ahmed Yousef, said on Friday.

The remark contradicted PA President Mahmoud Abbas's statement made to the UN General Assembly on Thursday that the planned national unity government would recognize Israel.


US, EU insist Hamas conditions not watered down
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."

Yousef said renouncing violence was a clause of the agreement underlying the planned coalition government. He was unclear on what Hamas would do if coalition talks break down.

Abbas had told the assembly's annual ministerial meeting that he had recently sought to establish a government of national unity "that is consistent with international and Arab legitimacy and that responds to the demands of the key parties promoting Mideast peace - recognition, ending violence and honoring past agreements.

"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 Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian 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.

Officials from both Fatah and Hamas said privately Friday that it wasn't clear whether Abbas' speech was meant to solicit international support for the planned government, or a new condition to forming a coalition with Hamas.

A spokesman for the Hamas-led government, Ghazi Hamad, said the group would ask Abbas to clarify his remarks after he returns from his trip.

Abbas was still in New York on Friday, and couldn't be immediately reached for comment on Yousef's remarks. A close adviser, Nabil Amr, clarified that the Palestinian president would not ask Hamas to explicitly recognize Israel, but to abide by Palestine Liberation Organization agreements that recognize the Jewish state.
"We expect Hamas to agree to this," Amr said.

Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin reiterated Israel's demand that any Palestinian government yield to the demands the international community has imposed.

[Element187]

I'm shocked! ... this has to be bushs fault

[bushfamfan]

Nuke them. That is the only way to deal with them. It will not end until they die and the Palestineans continue to give Hamas legitimacy because the madness is embedded in them. It's kill or be killed. WW2 Japan has nothing on what we are facing today. There are no surrenders from these psychopaths. They live to murder and love every minute of it.