Palestinian factions sought on Monday to find agreement on how to end a political crisis, deadly clashes and fiscal meltdown in a deal that could implicitly recognise Israel and avert a July referendum.
Bitter rivals Hamas, which heads a Western-boycotted government, and the Fatah party of President Mahmoud Abbas were to meet late on Monday, nearing the end of a second round of crisis talks due in principle to expire on Wednesday.
The focus of talks has been a statehood initiative that implicitly recognises Israel’s right to exist by calling for a Palestinian state on land conquered in 1967, an end to attacks in Israel and a national-unity government.
Hamas’s refusal so far to recognise the Jewish state, renounce violence or abide by past agreements has seen its government boycotted by the West and direct European Union and United States aid suspended, sending its finances into freefall.
A power struggle between Abbas, as president, and Hamas, as head of the government, has focused on control of the security services and disintegrated into deadly clashes, sparking fears of all-out civil war.
In a bid to break the deadlock after a first round of crisis talks failed earlier this month, Abbas called a July 26 referendum on the initiative, which Hamas claimed amounted to an attempt to overthrow its government.
The referendum announcement sparked the worst fighting to date between supporters of Fatah and Hamas, but since the president ordered another seven-day round of talks, the feuding, which has left scores dead, has calmed.
With leaders from both factions making conciliatory gestures, officials expressed optimism that an agreement could be in the offing. If a deal is clinched, Abbas has indicated he will call off the referendum.
“We are closer than ever to an agreement on the sticking points. We hope to reach a final formula in the next two days,” said Ghazi Hamad, Hamas government spokesperson.
Ibrahim Abu al-Naja, from a cross-faction grouping, said sticking points remained the supremacy of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, acceptance of a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders and negotiations with Israel.
Hamas’s charter calls for armed resistance and the destruction of the Jewish state, rather than negotiations to solve the Middle East conflict, and a state in all historic Palestine, not just Gaza and the West Bank, including east Jerusalem.
“Discussions are going well and all parties are demonstrating good intentions. A meeting will take place at 8pm [local time],” Naja said.
Hamas parliamentary spokesperson Salah al-Bardwail said the dialogue had produced agreement on “90%” of the document.
Observers say the statehood charter, drawn up by faction leaders who are jailed in Israel, would amount to a de-facto recognition of Israel, one of the West’s central demands before resuming aid to the beleaguered Hamas government.
The suspension in aid has meant that few of the Palestinian Authority’s 160 000 civil servants have been paid since Hamas took office in March, fuelling widespread discontent in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Abbas was scheduled to meet EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, just three days after EU leaders endorsed about $126-million in aid for the Palestinians.
The money should be paid to the Palestinians via a new funding mechanism that will bypass the Hamas-led government, given the Islamist movement’s status on the EU and EU blacklists of terrorist organisations. — AFP