Abbas willing to negotiate with political rival Hamas

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday that he would agree to talks with the militant Islamic group Hamas, an apparent about-face that reflects dwindling hope for a U.S.-brokered peace with Israel.

Hamas embraced the offer to end a year-old breach, a move that could jeopardize the Israeli and Western support that props up Abbas’ more secular administration. Israel has said it would review its relationship with Abbas if he were to make amends with Hamas, which has vowed to destroy the Jewish state.

Abbas dissolved a Hamas-led power-sharing government last June after the group seized control of the Gaza Strip from his Fatah security forces. The rift left Abbas in charge of only the West Bank but freer to negotiate with Israel.

Since then, his standing among Palestinians has fallen as Israel has expanded Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Hamas, meanwhile, has gained in popularity while continuing its attacks against the Jewish state.

The Palestinian leader opened a televised speech from the West Bank city of Ramallah by defending peace talks with Israel that were revived in November. But he complained that construction of settlements was undermining hope for President Bush’s goal of an accord by the time he leaves the White House.

Then, in a surprise announcement, he reached out to Hamas, the bitter adversary whose Gaza takeover he has denounced as a criminal act and a military coup.

“Let us hold a national and comprehensive dialogue . . . to end the national schism that has inflicted severe damage on our cause and more suffering on the Palestinian people” in Gaza, he said.

If talks with Hamas succeed, Abbas said, he will call early presidential and parliamentary elections, now scheduled for 2009 and 2010. He did not say when talks would begin, who would take part or whether Arab mediators would be involved.

Notably absent from the speech was any mention of his previous refusal to talk to Hamas unless the group submitted to his authority and gave up control of Gaza.

Without clarifying whether Abbas had dropped that condition, one aide said that changing circumstances called for trying to reconcile the rival parties.

“The failure of the peace process, the tragic situation in Gaza, the entire Palestinian situation . . . require thinking courageously of an exit,” said the aide, Nimer Hamad.

In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Taher Nunu said the group welcomed Abbas’ offer as “a positive step.”

Sami abu Zuhri, another Hamas official, said there would be no preconditions for talking to Abbas.

The Palestinian rivals have much to settle. Abbas has outlawed Hamas’ militias and suspended clauses in the Palestinian Basic Law that call for approval of his West Bank-based administration by the elected parliament, in which Hamas has a majority.

Hamas has denounced that administration as a tool of Israeli and U.S. interests. It has also rejected demands by the West that it recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept previous Arab-Israeli peace accords.

Since Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, Hamas and other militant groups have stepped up rocket attacks on Israeli border communities.

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boudreaux@latimes.com

Special correspondent Maher Abukhater in Ramallah contributed to this report.