Palestinians cite deep divisions after unity talks
Source: Reuters
By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah pointed on Monday to deep divisions over formation of a unity government after talks in Syria between their two top leaders ended without an agreement. But Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said Palestinian factions would begin a "national dialogue" in Gaza on Tuesday to follow up on Sunday's meeting between the Islamist movement's leader, Khaled Meshaal, and President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah. "It was a good meeting," Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, said of the three-hour session. Recent fighting between Hamas and Fatah that killed 30 people in Gaza and the West Bank has largely subsided but Palestinians fear it could resume if Abbas goes ahead with his pledge to call a new election should unity efforts fail. Hamas has struggled to govern under the weight of U.S.-led sanctions imposed because of its refusal to recognise the right of Israel to exist, renounce violence and abide by interim peace deals. "Hamas has given very flexible formulas stemmed from previous understandings between President Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh but unfortunately there are still difficulties," said Ismail Rudwan, Hamas spokesman. Tawfiq Abu Khoussa, a Fatah spokesman, said a new administration must adopt policies that would lead the West to lift what he termed its siege of the Palestinians, a reference to a cutoff of aid to the Hamas-led government. "When two political agendas clash we should go back to the people and they should choose an agenda," he said referring to Abbas's call for early election. Hamas, which defeated Fatah in a January 2006 election, has proposed a long-term truce with Israel in return for a Palestinian state on all the territory Israeli forces captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Hamas said it would "respect" but not abide by interim peace deals Israel signed with the Palestinians as long as the agreements did not violate the interests of the Palestininan people. The wording would appear to give Hamas room to pick and choose from those accords without making a clear commitment to them. Hamas and Fatah said they were also divided over key posts in any new government, particularly the appointment of an interior minister to oversee Palestinian security services. Palestinian political analyst Hani Habib said "the test will now be in Gaza, in the new dialogue beginning tomorrow". Hamas and Fatah, Habib said, were caught up in a "cold war" in which neither side had the military might to defeat the other. "If dialogue fails and if one side is convinced it has the military edge, we will have a massacre," he said.
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