Aides to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas announced yesterday that he had frozen talks with Prime Minister Ismail Haniya on forming a unity government.
This came after Palestinian officials said the US administration had told them the unity coalition deal must be cancelled or amended to meet three conditions the Quartet of Middle East mediators had set for lifting sanctions.
The Quartet (the US, the EU, the UN and Russia) have called on Hamas to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept the interim peace deals.
Presidential aide Ahmad Abd al-Rahman told reporters yesterday negotiations would be frozen until Abbas returned from a trip to New York later this week, where he will attend a UN meeting.
Rahman said: ‘The president has frozen measures to form a unity government after the conflicting statements issued by Hamas and its leaders, which have prompted unfavourable international reactions.’
On Saturday, Haniya insisted a document written by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, that serves as the basis for the unity guidelines, ‘does not recognise the occupation’ nor accepts existing peace deals which recognise Israel and agree to give up the armed resistance.
Haniya said that the two issues ‘will be dealt with in the way that serves the higher interests of the Palestinian people’.
Hamas-led government spokesman Ghazi Hamad said: ‘There are some issues of difference, but in general things are going smoothly and well. We have not reached a dead end.
‘We need some more time to settle the differences.’
Haniya yesterday denied that talks on forming a national unity government had been frozen by Abbas.
The Palestinian prime minister said talks would only be put on hold while Abbas was attending meetings at the UN this week.
‘I assure all parties that there is no retreat. There is an agreement between myself and President Abbas to resume the dialogue when he comes back,’ Haniya told reporters.
