Palestinian unity talks 'dead'
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas told the PLO’s top decision-making body today that unity government talks with Hamas were dead and he blamed the radical Islamic group for their collapse, participants in the meeting said.
“President Abbas stressed that there would be no dialogue with Hamas. He said the dialogue ended and that Hamas bears the responsibility for the failure of the talks,” said Tayseer Khaled, a member of the PLO Executive Committee.
With the talks on hold, Abbas was trying to find a new way to break the deadlock between his Fatah Party and Hamas and to end the economic sanctions that the West put on the Palestinian Authority when Hamas took over in March. Western nations said they would not lift the sanctions unless Hamas renounces violence and recognises Israel, which it has refused to do.
Abbas formed a committee that will meet tomorrow to discuss his options and he plans to address the Palestinian people “very soon” to discuss his next move, said Saeb Erekat, a top Abbas aide.
Hamas on Friday criticised Abbas for saying the talks had reached a “dead end,” and 6,000 people attended a Hamas rally in Gaza calling for a resumption of talks.
Abbas has two unattractive options. If he fires the Hamas-led government, the Islamic party would still maintain a majority in parliament, creating a government deadlock. Holding a national referendum on whether to call early elections could also be problematic for Abbas, with his Fatah Party struggling in recent opinion polls.
The PLO body agreed that the talks would not resume any time soon unless Hamas agrees to the demand by Abbas – who is also the PLO’s leader- that it accept the international conditions.
“The talks must be resumed when the conditions are appropriate ... specifically the acceptance of (Abbas’) political program,” the body, the PLO’s top decision-making committee, said in a statement after its meeting today.
After meeting with the PLO leaders, Abbas headed to Gaza, where he planned to work on an agreement to expand a Gaza truce with Israel to included the West Bank.
The fragility of the cease-fire, however, was highlighted today when Gaza militants fired a rocket into Israel. A violent offshoot of Fatah took responsibility. Since the truce was declared on November 26, Palestinian militants have fired 14 rockets, by the count of the army, which has not responded.
Israel’s Security Cabinet of senior ministers was to meet Sunday to discuss extending the truce to the West Bank, where routine violence continued today.
Israeli troops shot to death a Palestinian in the city of Hebron. The army said the man threw a firebomb at an Israeli patrol. Palestinian hospital officials could not confirm that the 22-year-old man was a militant.
Separately, the army arrested 29 Palestinians in overnight raids across the West Bank.
