Last update - 00:00 24/11/2006
Hamas official blames Fatah for delay in forming a new PA gov't
By The Associated Press
The Palestinian foreign minister has blamed the Fatah Party and its leader, Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, for delaying the formation of a national unity government with Hamas.
Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas official, said Abbas' desire to create a technocrat government was a "dangerous" recession and unacceptable.
"There was a regression in Fatah and Abbas' stance from the national reconciliation document," Zahar said in the Syrian capital late Thursday after meeting with Palestinian radical factions.
He added that if a new government is not formed, the current Hamas-led government would continue to operate. He also repeated the militant group's stance that it would not approve any government that recognizes Israel and renounces violence against it.
Fatah and Hamas have been discussing the idea of a coalition government for months, but have been unable to reach a deal. The delay comes amid increased violence in the Gaza Strip. On Friday, IDF soldiers killed two Palestinians, including a 10-year-old boy, and militants fired at least two rockets at nearby Israeli towns. Those deaths came a day after a 64-year-old Palestinian grandmother blew herself up alongside Israeli troops, killing herself and lightly wounding two soldiers.
Hamas officials believe that the technocrat government would take a vague position toward Israel and focus on internal Palestinian affairs, while allowing Abbas to pursue peace talks with Israel.
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip, said Hamas is interested in making the negotiations succeed, "but there seems to be new conditions that are unnecessary. "
"There is a regression in what we agreed upon and this is unacceptable," Barhoum said.
Economic sanctions and the cutoff of hundreds of millions of dollars in annual aid from the EU and the United States have debilitated the Palestinians and have led to clashes between Hamas and Fatah.
Efforts to form national unity cabinet between Hamas and Abbas's Fatah are seen as integral to ending the international boycott on Hamas-led government.
In Cairo, meanwhile, Hamas's exiled political leader Khaled Mashaal continued his talks with Egyptian officials.
Hamas officials and the Egyptian government were not providing details about the discussions other than to say they focused on forming a national unity government, securing a prisoner exchange with Israel and lifting the Israeli blockade against Palestinians.
"There are still a lot of efforts," concerning the prisoner exchange negotiations, said Moussa Abu Marzouk, Mashaal's deputy, in a telephone interview in Damascus. But no deal has been reached, he said.
Mashaal, who lives in exile in Syria, arrived Cairo late Wednesday and met with Egypt's powerful intelligence chief Omar Suleiman on Thursday.
In an interview the state-run Middle East News Agency, President Hosni Mubarak said Egypt was sparing no effort to help the Palestinians in finding a solution to the current crisis.
"Negotiations and dialogue between the Palestinian factions is the only way to find a way out of the current stalemate that the Palestinian case is passing through," MENA quoted Mubarak as saying.