UNITED NATIONS/GAZA/JERUSALEM/WEST BANK: Hamas says it will not join any Palestinian unity government that recognises Israel, rebuffing President Mahmoud Abbas who told the UN any future coalition would do so

Hamas said on Friday (September 22) it would not join any Palestinian unity government that recognised Israel, rebuffing President Mahmoud Abbas who told the United Nations any future coalition would do so and also renounce violence. The blow to Abbas came after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, seeking to revive stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, said she planned to visit the Middle East soon. Speaking at the 192-nation General Assembly in New York on Thursday, Abbas said: "Any future government will commit to imposing security and order, to ending the phenomena of multiple militias, indiscipline and chaos, and to the rule of law." But Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of the ruling Islamist movement and other Hamas members insisted a deal with Abbas to form a unity coalition did not include recognition of Israel. Haniyeh told worshippers at a Gaza mosque that Hamas did not believe in a two-state solution to end the conflict. He reaffirmed Hamas would accept a state as an interim solution on all land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war in return for a long-term truce with the Jewish state but not in return for recognition. "Any national unity government will be based on a document of national agreement. From our side we have accepted an independent and fully sovereign (Palestinian) state in the lands occupied in 1967 in return for a truce," Haniyeh said. A deal on a unity government was reached on September 11 and Palestinians hope it will lead to a lifting of Western sanctions imposed on Hamas when it took office in March. Talks on the coalition's formation have faltered since and Abbas, whose Fatah party was defeated by Hamas in January elections, has accused Hamas of reneging on the deal. The row centres on agreeing a political agenda for the unity coalition that is clear enough in recognition of Israel to satisfy the West but vague enough for Hamas to say it does not contradict their charter, which calls for Israel's destruction. Hamas ultimately wants an Islamic state to replace Israel. Abbas's office in Ramallah said the president would return to the Palestinian territories at the weekend after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo. Talks with Abbas would resume after that, Haniyeh said. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of worshippers gathered at the Noble Sancturay shrine, the third holiest site for Islam on the last Friday before the start of the holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan is a month of fasting in solidarity with those who are less fortunate, when Muslims from different parts of the country and from abroad try to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Throughout the West Bank and Gaza, Hamas called for a day of rage against statements made by the pope ten days ago Palestinians took the streets of Ramallah, as well as Nablus in the West Bank and Gaza, showing support for Hamas and chanting slogans condemning the catholic Pope for his statement demanding a clear apology. Hundreds of Palestinians jostled to get through the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt as it reopened briefly for the first time in weeks under an agreement with the Israelis. The Rafah crossing, Gaza's main gateway to the outside world, has been mostly shut since Israel launched an offensive in late June to try to recover a soldier who was captured by militants from the territory. Palestinians technically control the crossing but its operations can be blocked by Israel. Hundreds of travellers packed into buses and clambered onto their roofs to get across the border. Students studying abroad and Gaza residents who live abroad were also allowed out along with medical patients. Palestinian officials said some 4,000 people were also waiting to cross from the Egyptian side. Rafah was last opened in mid-August.

ITN Source | September 23, 2006

Tags:. .rage. .holy. .holiest. .destruction. .chaos