Palestinian leaders draft policy deal: Officials

By Staff
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Ramallah (West Bank), June 27: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh have reached broad agreement on a manifesto at the heart of a power struggle between their rival groups, officials said today.

The political document, penned by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, implicitly recognises Israel. But the phrasing of the Abbas-Haniyeh deal appeared to leave the prime minister's Hamas movement wriggle room on the issue.

With Israel and the Palestinians preparing for a possible Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip following the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier, there appeared to be little chance agreement over the document could open a path towards peacemaking soon.

Officials close to the negotiations, which have dragged on for weeks, said Abbas, a Fatah leader, and Haniyeh agreed on a platform, based on the manifesto, accepting a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Such a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be in line with Fatah's recognition of Israel.

But the proposed phrasing also pointedly says that moves towards statehood, including Arab initiatives seeking peace with Israel and international resolutions on the conflict must serve the Palestinian people and their interests.

That could allow Hamas to reject, on those grounds, any accommodation with Israel, or recognition of the Jewish state.

Negotiators were putting the final touches to the agreement, a senior official said, with formal announcement of a deal expected later in the day.

Under the draft accord, Hamas, leading the Palestinian government on its own after an election victory in January, would agree to form a unity administration with Fatah and other factions.

But, the officials said, Hamas was insisting it head any governing coalition.

The agreement also appeared likely to lead to the cancellation of a July 26 referendum Abbas scheduled, despite Hamas's objections, on the prisoners' document.

''They (Abbas and Haniyeh) agreed that a referendum would be held after a referendum law is passed,'' one official told Reuters.

Hamas has a majority in parliament, making the adoption of such a law unlikely.

Reuters

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