Rift on govt prevents Abbas-Meshaal meeting

Damascus, Jan 21: A meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal was postponed after aides failed to solve a rift over a unity government that could help stop communal violence.

The meeting scheduled in the Syrian capital late yesterday was postponed after officials failed to reconcile differences over the proposed government and how it would deal with Western demands, a senior Hamas official told sources.

''Efforts are under way to convene the meeting today. Disagreements persist on the manifesto and the proposed letter to form the government,'' Hamas politburo member Izzat al-Rishq said.

Asked if Abbas could leave Damascus as scheduled today without meeting the Hamas leader, Rishq said: ''Everything is possible.'' Ramadan Shallah, head of Islamic Jihad, met Abbas late into the night to try to mediate a deal.

''There are vital issues that remain unresolved. Neither Hamas nor Fatah have a timetable to reach a deal,'' Shallah said after the meeting.

A power struggle between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah faction has led to violence in Gaza and the West Bank after talks on forming a unity government broke down late last year and Abbas called for fresh elections.

Earlier, Rishq had told Reuters the two politicians would discuss whom to appoint to the ministries of the interior, finance and foreign affairs in a proposed unity government.

Rishq had also said the meeting hoped to solve the issue of the final language of the manifesto and those in charge of the three ministries.

He had said talks between Abbas aides and Hamas officials in the past few days had reached an understanding that Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas would lead the next government.

Abbas arrived in Damascus yesterday and met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has close ties with Meshaal and allows the Hamas exiled leadership to live in Syria.

Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said Abbas told Assad the programme of the next Palestinian government must meet conditions set by the West for the lifting of sanctions that have harmed the Palestinian economy.

''We need a national unity government whose programme is able to attract international and regional support,'' Erekat said.

Nayef Hawatmeh, head of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said: ''Failure to form a unity government will set back the Palestinian cause for decades.'' The Hamas government took office in March after a strong election win, prompting the West to impose sanctions designed to force Hamas to recognise Israel, renounce armed struggle and accept past accords.

Meshaal told Reuters this month that Hamas acknowledged that Israel's existence was a matter of fact.

He said Hamas's priority was to establish a Palestinian state on the land the Jewish state had occupied since 1967, not to entertain whether it should recognise Israel.

REUTERS

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