Abbas says early Palestinian polls still an option

Damascus, Jan 23: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said today he may still call early elections if negotiations with Hamas on a unity government lead nowhere.

''My talks with Hamas have been positive, but early elections are an option if talks for a national unity government fail,'' Abbas told reporters before leaving Damascus, where he met the Islamist movement's leader Khaled Meshaal yesterday.

Abbas, head of the once-dominant Fatah faction, and Meshaal agreed despite their political rivalry to try to stop Palestinian bloodshed. But they did not reach a deal on forming a new government, and officials pointed to deep divisions.

In Gaza, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh -- a senior Hamas figure -- said Palestinian factions would begin a ''national dialogue'' tomorrow to follow up on Sunday's session. Similar negotiations between Fatah and Hamas broke down last year.

Recent fighting between Hamas and Fatah that killed 30 people in Gaza and the West Bank has largely subsided but Palestinians fear it could resume if Abbas goes ahead with his pledge to call a new election should unity efforts fail.

Hamas, which defeated Fatah in January 2006 elections, has struggled to govern under the weight of US-led sanctions imposed because of its refusal to recognise the right of Israel to exist, renounce violence and abide by interim peace deals.

''Hamas has given very flexible formulas (which) stemmed from previous understandings between President Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh but unfortunately there are still difficulties,'' said Ismail Rudwan, a Hamas spokesman.

Sanctions

Abbas and Meshaal agreed to keep trying to bridge differences over the proposed government's programme and how to deal with Western conditions for the lifting of sanctions, which have harmed the Palestinian economy.

''The talks will continue and this is a main achievement. Taking a firm stand against communal violence was also vital,'' said Saeb Erakat, a senior aide to Abbas.

But senior Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq said the movement could not accept a draft programme presented by Abbas that would commit a new government to previous peace deals with Israel and a 2002 Arab initiative that offered Israel normal ties in return for a full withdrawal from lands it occupied in 1967.

''We won parliamentary elections a year ago on the basis of an election manifesto that would be compromised by accepting such language,'' said Rishq.

Hamas has proposed a long-term truce with Israel in return for a Palestinian state on all the territory Israeli forces captured in the 1967 West Asia war.

It said it would ''respect'' -- but would not be committed to -- interim peace deals Israel signed with the Palestinians as long as the agreements did not violate the interests of the Palestininan people.

The wording appears to give Hamas room to pick and choose from those accords without making a clear commitment to them.

Hamas and Fatah said they were also divided over key posts in any new government, particularly the appointment of an interior minister to oversee Palestinian security services.

Palestinian political analyst Hani Habib said Hamas and Fatah were caught in a ''cold war'' in which neither side had the military might to defeat the other.

''If dialogue fails and if one side is convinced it has the military edge, we will have a massacre,'' he said.

Reuters