Rival Palestinian factions meeting for crisis talks in Saudi Arabia on Thursday night agreed to form a coalition government, but there was no immediate guarantee that it would be enough to lift an international boycott on the Palestinian government.
After two days of talks in Mecca, the leaders of Hamas and Fatah agreed a list of ministers for a new national unity Cabinet and called for a halt to factional fighting that has claimed more than 100 lives in the occupied territories in recent weeks. The deal appeared to have averted a slide into civil war. The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, described it as a new era.
Hamas, the Islamic militant movement voted into government a year ago, appeared to have the upper hand in the agreement. Ismail Haniyeh, the Prime Minister and Hamas leader, will stay on and an independent candidate, selected by Hamas and approved by Fatah, will be given the key position of interior minister, which includes control of the thousands of security forces.
Israel and the Quartet of Middle East negotiators — the European Union, the United Nations, the United States and Russia — had insisted that to lift an international boycott the new government had to meet three conditions: recognition of Israel, renunciation of violence and acceptance of previous peace deals. Before the Mecca agreement it appeared that both Israel and the Quartet were reluctant to accept any flexibility on those requirements. However, on Thursday night it appeared that the deal included no explicit recognition of Israel, but agreed only to “respect” past peace agreements.
Before the meeting, Fatah officials said they were looking to Hamas to sign up to a stronger acceptance of previous peace deals, either agreeing to “honour” them or to “commit” to them.
The new government would reportedly follow an agreement known as the prisoners’ document, a programme drawn up jointly by jailed Fatah and Hamas figures last June. It called for a Palestinian state within the land captured by Israel in 1967, with a capital in Jerusalem, and for continued “resistance” to Israel within the occupied territories. It stopped short of explicit recognition of Israel, but said Hamas should work towards joining the Palestine Liberation Organisation, currently a Fatah-dominated umbrella group which has formally recognised Israel and which the document said would be responsible for negotiating future peace agreements.
Shortly after the agreement was announced an Israeli government spokesperson said that Israel still expected a Palestinian government to meet the conditions set by the Quartet. She did not say whether her government accepted the deal reached in Mecca.
The Mecca agreement comes 10 days before the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, is due to arrive in Jerusalem to chair a meeting between the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, and Abbas. An Israeli rejection of the new Palestinian government’s programme could jeopardise the chance of restarting peace negotiations. – Guardian Unlimited Â