Palestinian unity government will reject violence, Abbas says

Yahoo – AFP, Hossam Ezzedine,  26 April 2014

Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas gestures as he gives a

 speech during a meeting with the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO)'s 

Central Council in the West Bank city of Ramallah on April 26, 2014 (AFP

 Photo/Abbas Momani)

Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Saturday the new unity government he is set to head with the backing of Hamas would reject violence and recognise Israel and existing agreements.

Abbas was speaking to the Palestine Liberation Organisation's Central Council, which had convened to chart a course of action after Israel suspended US-brokered peace talks in response to a reconciliation deal with the Islamist Hamas.

The agreement between the rival Palestinian factions came as the United States and Israel had been hoping to extend the faltering peace talks beyond their April 29 deadline.

Palestinians gather to celebrate the

 agreement to form a unity government

 in Gaza on April 23, 2014 (AFP Photo/

Mahmud Hams)

Israel said it would not negotiate with a government backed by Hamas, the armed Islamist movement ruling the Gaza Strip, which is pledged to the destruction of the Jewish state and has always rejected peace talks

"The upcoming government will obey my policy," Abbas told the PLO council. "I recognise Israel and reject violence and terrorism, and recognise international commitments."

And he stressed that the new government would not be charged with negotiations, but rather the PLO, which "represents the entire Palestinian people."

A senior Hamas official in Gaza concurred in a reacting to what he called a "mostly positive" speech.

“It is not the government’s mission to take care of political issues," Bassem Naim, an adviser to Hamas' Gaza premier Ismail Haniya, told AFP.

"It has only three main missions: unifying the Palestinian organisations, preparing for elections and reconstructing Gaza,”

The PLO is the internationally recognised representative of the Palestinians and their interlocutor in peace talks.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) was created as part of the Oslo peace process in the 1990s to administer the occupied Palestinian territories.

Abbas heads both, as well as the secular Fatah party, which dominates the PLO.

A new Israeli air force military cargo plane

the 'Samson' C-130J Super Hercules (C)

flies with Israeli military planes over Israeli

flags at Nevatim air force base near the

southern Israeli city of Beer Sheva on

April 9, 2014 (AFP Photo/David Buimovitch)

Under the Wednesday PLO-Hamas agreement, Abbas would head an "independent government" of technocrats, to be formed within five weeks.

That new interim administration would be charged with holding parliamentary and presidential elections within six months of taking office.

Israel and Western nations view Hamas as a terrorist organisation, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Abbas must choose between reconciling with the Islamist group and negotiating peace with his country.

Earlier Saturday, Netanyahu spokesman Ofir Gendelman wrote on Twitter that "abbas forged a pact w/ a global terrorist organisation," noting Hamas was on the "terror lists" of various states, including the United States and Egypt.

No recognition of 'Jewish' state

Abbas also reiterated that the Palestinians would never recognise Israel as the "Jewish state," saying they recognised it as a state in 1993 and should not have to accept its religious identity, which has been a central Netanyahu demand.

He pointed out that no similar demand was made of Egypt or Jordan when they signed peace treaties recognising Israel.

And he said the Palestinians would refuse a state that did not have east Jerusalem as its capital.

Hamas's Naim said the Abbas "speech had mostly positive points, and we cannot but support it on... not recognising (Israel as) the Jewish state."

US State Department spokeswoman

 Jen Psaki speaks at the daily briefing at

the State Department in Washington,DC

on March 10, 2014 (AFP Photo/Nicholas

Kamm)

The dispute over recognition and Israel's continuing construction of settlements in the occupied territories presented major obstacles to US Secretary of State John Kerry's dogged efforts to coax the two sides towards a historic peace agreement.

Efforts to extend hitherto fruitless talks to hit a wall last month when Israel refused to release a final batch of Palestinian prisoners.

The Palestinians retaliated by applying to adhere to 15 international treaties as Abbas listed conditions for extending the talks beyond the deadline.

Abbas reiterated on Saturday he would agree to an extension if Israel freezes settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem, frees the prisoners and begins discussion on the borders of a promised Palestinian state.

Last week, Israel dismissed the same conditions.

"If they don't want to commit there is the other solution -- for them to take over everything," Abbas said, implying a consequence of not renewing talks could be the dismantlement of the PA.

After Abbas's speech, the PLO meeting adjourned until the evening.

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