Hamas Backs Away From Unity Coalition

The ruling Hamas party said Friday that the radical Islamist group would not take part in a Palestinian unity government whose platform recognized Israel.

The comments, by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and other Hamas officials, came after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had declared in a United Nations speech that the proposed coalition with his Fatah movement would recognize Israel.

The exchange highlighted the lingering differences between the two parties despite a tentative agreement to join forces in an effort to end the West’s months-long aid embargo against the Hamas-led government.

“We will not participate in any government that would recognize Israel. I can confirm that Hamas will never be part of the ‘recognition government,’ ” Mahmoud Zahar, the foreign minister and a member of Hamas, said in Gaza City.

Haniyeh said Hamas was prepared to observe a long-term truce but not recognize Israel’s right to exist. Hamas would accept a Palestinian state along the borders that preceded the 1967 Middle East War -- meaning one having control of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem -- he said. The latter position at times has been read to mean an implicit recognition of Israel; but Hamas leaders repeatedly have said that is not their organization’s intention.

The remarks came a day after Abbas, who favors peace talks with the Israelis, had told the U.N. General Assembly that a unity government would abide by earlier agreements with Israel that call for mutual recognition and an end to violence.

Abbas said any peace talks would be left in the hands of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which he heads, and ratified by a PLO assembly or put to a vote among Palestinians.

An accord, he said, would be based on the outlines of a 2002 Arab League initiative that envisioned a two-state solution along the 1967 borders and normal ties between Israel and Arab nations.

“What we have achieved so far should be adequate to lift the oppressive siege imposed on our people and which has caused major and grave damage to our society, its standard of living and its means of growth and progress,” Abbas said in the speech.

He and Haniyeh announced last week that they had agreed to form a unity government, though not on the details of its platform. The quartet of Middle East peace intermediaries -- the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia -- has said international aid would be renewed when the Palestinian government recognized Israel, swore off violence and agreed to honor past agreements.

The quartet said this week that it supports efforts to create a unity government and hopes the new Palestinian platform will “reflect” the three conditions.

Abbas is to resume talks with Hamas when he returns, and the back-and-forth declarations appeared to be part of that haggling. The two factions face a difficult chore: to come up with a formulation on Israel that is vague enough for Hamas but satisfactory to the international community and Israel.

The proposed platform refers to the right to a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders and to the Arab initiative -- wording that could be read as tacit recognition of Israel. But the draft does not address Israel explicitly.

Haniyeh praised the 2002 initiative’s call for Israel’s withdrawal from territories occupied after the 1967 war and for a negotiated agreement on Palestinian refugees. But he said a truce was as far as Hamas would go for now.

“All that is nice, but not in return for recognition -- in return for a truce,” Haniyeh said.

Hamas’ charter calls for Israel’s destruction, and its leaders have consistently refused to recognize the Jewish state. The United States and European Union cut off aid after Hamas won parliamentary elections in January because they classify it as a terrorist group.

The aid cutoff has left the Palestinian treasury empty and prompted strikes by thousands of unpaid public employees. Rising public discontent has placed intense pressure on Abbas and Hamas’ leaders to act soon to solve the deadlock.

The financial crisis has been aggravated by Israel’s decision to withhold about $50 million in tax and customs revenues that it collects monthly on behalf of the Palestinian Authority under a 1994 agreement.

Zahar warned Abbas against dissolving the government, saying such a step could lead to civil war.

ken.ellingwood@latimes.com

Special correspondent Rushdie abu Alouf in Gaza City contributed to this report.