Last update - 00:00 06/12/2006
Peres: Proposed PA unity gov't would be no more than a 'facade'
By The Associated Press
Vice Premier Shimon Peres said Wednesday that a proposed Palestinian Authority national unity government would be nothing more than a "facade," because the Hamas militants it would represent are not interested in peace.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah declared last week that efforts to form such a government had broken down, but Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas denied negotiations had reached a dead end.
Hamas would use such a government in an effort to restore international funding that dried up after it took power, Peres said.
"Hamas doesn't want peace, even if we give them '67 borders," Peres said,
referring to the pre-1967 Six Day War boundaries. "Hamas wants to use Fatah as a facade to get money."
The talks between Abbas and Hamas foundered over the militant group's refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept existing peace deals.
The Quartet of Middle East negotiators - the European Union, United States, United Nations, and Russia - have made those three stipulations preconditions for lifting the international economic embargo imposed on the PA after Hamas came to power in January.