Hamas Rejects Abbas’ Moves

The militant Islamic group Hamas said Friday that it was breaking off cease-fire talks with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, a rebuff that appeared designed to undermine the new leader days after he agreed to implement a newly drawn “road map” to peace.

In making the announcement, Hamas leader Abdulaziz Rantisi decried what he called Abbas’ “speech of capitulation” at a summit in the Jordanian port of Aqaba this week with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Bush. In that speech, Abbas also committed Palestinians to eschewing violence.

The Hamas move came in the wake of comments by sidelined Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, who a day earlier had derided the concessions called for in the peace plan, and particularly what he called a lack of good faith on the part of Sharon.

But Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization and leaders of the Palestinian Authority issued statements late Friday suggesting that a truce was still possible and urging Palestinians to avoid internecine battles.

Nonetheless, the comments by Arafat, Rantisi and other Palestinian groups opposed to the peace process had all the earmarks of a challenge to Abbas, who is viewed as a moderate and has begun to replace Arafat on the international stage. Arafat was not invited to either Sharm el Sheik, the Egyptian resort where Arab leaders met this week to discuss Mideast issues, or to the Aqaba summit.

The comments also reflected widespread distress among Palestinians about the concessions made at Aqaba, which many saw as far too conciliatory to the Israelis and insufficiently clear about what the Palestinians can expect to see in return for their cooperation.

Many Palestinians felt that Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, did not distinguish between what they call resistance to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian areas and terrorist acts against Israeli civilians. They also felt that while Abbas had pledged to end the violence, Sharon had given no guarantees about removing settlements from Palestinian areas.

“This is a setback for Abu Mazen’s efforts,” veteran Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat said, adding that he hoped other Arab countries, particularly Egypt, would intervene with Hamas and forestall an outright withdrawal from talks by the group.

The U.S.-backed peace plan requires that the Palestinians disarm the militant groups that have killed hundreds of Israelis in shootings and bombings during the 32 months of the most recent intifada against Israeli rule. It requires the Israelis to end massive restrictions on Palestinians’ movement, cease demolitions of their homes and halt the growth of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory.

The Hamas statements came just hours after Israeli troops entered the West Bank town of Tulkarm and killed two Palestinian men who security forces said were plotting an attack on Israeli citizens. The two men were Hamas activists.

Analysts were divided about Hamas’ intentions in announcing its pullout from the talks with Abbas, who has entered long negotiations aimed at coaxing the militants to hold their fire.

It was unclear whether part of the purpose was to remind Palestinians of the group’s clout. There is little doubt that if the peace process moves forward, the militants will have to remodel themselves in order to have a role. In an effort at damage control, Abbas’ negotiator with the hard-line Islamic groups all but apologized for his boss’ comments late Friday.

“There was a clear problem in Abu Mazen’s speech, and we do not know the conditions that prompted him to make that speech,” Ziad abu Amr, liaison to the Islamic groups, said on Arab satellite TV.

“We hope this issue will be resolved,” he said. “We hope that the Hamas decision will not be final because we have agreed between us that the only way to solve our internal differences is through dialogue.”

At the White House, Deputy Press Secretary Scott McClellan said Friday that Bush was not discouraged by the move by Hamas, which Washington has labeled a terrorist organization.

“Those who pursue terror have made it very clear that they are enemies of peace, and Hamas is an enemy of peace,” McClellan said. “We’re going to continue to work with all parties to achieve peace.”

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the possible breakdown of talks between Hamas and Abbas did not indicate a loss of momentum in Bush’s peacemaking efforts.

The United States, Boucher said, will work closely with Arab leaders “to ensure that groups like Hamas cannot conduct terrorist and violent action.... We all need to work to make sure that they cannot carry out ... this kind of violent action that they’ve taken in the past.”

Boucher said the U.S. is “working on the specifics” of how to “use all means to cut off assistance, including arms and financing, to any terror group.”

If Hamas-sponsored attacks occur, they would damage prospects for the peace plan even before the two sides have taken the first steps. It would also force Abbas to decide whether to use Palestinian security forces to clamp down on Hamas and risk internecine fighting or allow the group to continue its attacks on Israelis and undermine the peace process.

Much like the Jewish settlers who declare that they will fight to keep their homes, Hamas and Islamic Jihad are spoilers who see little gain for themselves in backing the peace process, because their long-standing pledge is to regain all the land Palestinians lost when the state of Israel was established in 1948.

“We will never be ready to lay down arms until the liberation of the last centimeter of the land of Palestine,” Rantisi said in the Gaza Strip after the Aqaba talks.

Arafat tried to downplay the significance of the Aqaba talks, saying Thursday that “Sharon did not offer anything tangible.” He scoffed at Sharon’s promise to remove unauthorized Jewish outposts in Palestinian territory. The prime minister will remove “one trailer and then say he removed a settlement,” Arafat predicted scornfully.

The statement late Friday from the PLO’s Executive Committee, which represents the group’s official policy, backed the peace plan and specifically praised Bush’s involvement. But it made clear that Sharon had failed to go far enough.

“Prime Minister Sharon reiterated the Israeli reservations on the road map and tried to avoid a commitment to stop all settlement activities. Sharon also did not clearly state an end to violence and to the Israeli military escalation against the Palestinian people everywhere,” the statement said.

The statement also implicitly urged Hamas to continue a dialogue with the Palestinian Authority and to avoid a situation in which Palestinians are fighting with one another.

“The Executive Committee reiterates the importance of national unity and dialogue between Palestinian factions,” it said, “and all the people should show responsibility and take into consideration the higher national interest of our Palestinian and Arab people.”

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Times staff writer Edwin Chen in Washington contributed to this report.