Abbas urges Hamas to respect deals, warns Israel
RAMALLAH, May 15 (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged Hamas on Monday to renounce violence and respect peace agreements, but also warned Israel that taking a unilateral approach to peacemaking would fuel extremism.
In a speech to mark Nakba, a day of mourning for Palestinians, recalling the day Israel was founded in 1948, Abbas said Hamas, the Islamic movement that heads the Palestinian government, should honour existing peace deals.
Without referring directly to Hamas, he said Palestinians should not be satisfied with "fiery speeches and slogans that could bring about international isolation".
Such speeches, he said, "more dangerously make us fall into the trap that Israel wants, which is to reject negotiations using the excuse that there is no Palestinian partner".
Abbas's speech, pre-recorded as he is on a visit to Russia, was broadcast live on Palestinian television and radio.
Hamas, which defeated Abbas's Fatah movement in January elections and took office in March, is officially sworn to Israel's destruction and has ruled out any negotiations.
In a statement following Abbas's speech the movement rejected any change in its attitude towards Israel.
"Any talk about stopping resistance or illegitimate resistance is rejected as long as the occupation continues and the world continues to ignore Palestinian rights," it said.
In his speech, Abbas also warned Israel that unilaterally setting "final borders" with a Palestinian state, as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has pledged to do by 2010 if peace talks cannot be resumed, risked provoking a deeper spiral of violence.
Olmert has said those borders will roughly follow a barrier Israel is building in the occupied West Bank, encompassing Jewish settlements built on land Palestinians consider theirs.
"As for Israel, we call on it to release our withheld funds and to backtrack on unilateral solutions because it will kill the peace process forever and will ignite the region and increase extremism," he said.
Since March, Israel has withheld around $55 million a month in tax revenues it collects on the Palestinians' behalf.
EU VOWS AID PLAN SOON
Crowds gathered in the centre of Ramallah, administrative capital of the West Bank, to hear Abbas's speech over loudspeakers after standing in silence as sirens wailed to mark Nakba, or the great catastrophe, of May 58 years ago.
Arab states attacked Israel the day after it was proclaimed on May 14, 1948. In the war, around 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were driven from their homes in what is now Israel.
Tensions between Abbas's Fatah movement and Hamas have increased sharply since Hamas came to power, with factions allied to the rival movements sometimes facing off in Gaza.
At the same time, Israel has effectively broken off all links with the Hamas-led government, which it, the United States and the European Union have branded a terrorist group.
Hamas now not only has virtually no income but has inherited government coffers it says were already $1.3 billion in debt. The financial crunch has left hospitals short of medicine and 165,000 government employees unpaid since March.
In an effort to try to alleviate the crisis, the EU said on Monday it hoped to get a new mechanism for channelling aid to the Palestinians, bypassing Hamas, up and running soon.
In recent weeks, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have repeatedly fired home-made rockets into Israel, causing damage and occasional injury. In response Israel has bombarded Gaza with artillery, killing militants and some civilians.
Abbas called on Palestinians to "stop firing useless rockets", saying it gave Israel the excuse to escalate attacks.
He also put himself forward again as a peace partner, saying he remained ready to talk to Israel. "We want to make a just and permanent peace with you," he said.
"Let's make this year the year of peace, let's sit at the negotiations table away from the policy of dictations and unilateralism. Stop making excuses there's no Palestinian partner, the partner is there." (Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and David Brunnstrom in Brussels)
In a speech to mark Nakba, a day of mourning for Palestinians, recalling the day Israel was founded in 1948, Abbas said Hamas, the Islamic movement that heads the Palestinian government, should honour existing peace deals.
Without referring directly to Hamas, he said Palestinians should not be satisfied with "fiery speeches and slogans that could bring about international isolation".
Such speeches, he said, "more dangerously make us fall into the trap that Israel wants, which is to reject negotiations using the excuse that there is no Palestinian partner".
Abbas's speech, pre-recorded as he is on a visit to Russia, was broadcast live on Palestinian television and radio.
Hamas, which defeated Abbas's Fatah movement in January elections and took office in March, is officially sworn to Israel's destruction and has ruled out any negotiations.
In a statement following Abbas's speech the movement rejected any change in its attitude towards Israel.
"Any talk about stopping resistance or illegitimate resistance is rejected as long as the occupation continues and the world continues to ignore Palestinian rights," it said.
In his speech, Abbas also warned Israel that unilaterally setting "final borders" with a Palestinian state, as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has pledged to do by 2010 if peace talks cannot be resumed, risked provoking a deeper spiral of violence.
Olmert has said those borders will roughly follow a barrier Israel is building in the occupied West Bank, encompassing Jewish settlements built on land Palestinians consider theirs.
"As for Israel, we call on it to release our withheld funds and to backtrack on unilateral solutions because it will kill the peace process forever and will ignite the region and increase extremism," he said.
Since March, Israel has withheld around $55 million a month in tax revenues it collects on the Palestinians' behalf.
EU VOWS AID PLAN SOON
Crowds gathered in the centre of Ramallah, administrative capital of the West Bank, to hear Abbas's speech over loudspeakers after standing in silence as sirens wailed to mark Nakba, or the great catastrophe, of May 58 years ago.
Arab states attacked Israel the day after it was proclaimed on May 14, 1948. In the war, around 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were driven from their homes in what is now Israel.
Tensions between Abbas's Fatah movement and Hamas have increased sharply since Hamas came to power, with factions allied to the rival movements sometimes facing off in Gaza.
At the same time, Israel has effectively broken off all links with the Hamas-led government, which it, the United States and the European Union have branded a terrorist group.
Hamas now not only has virtually no income but has inherited government coffers it says were already $1.3 billion in debt. The financial crunch has left hospitals short of medicine and 165,000 government employees unpaid since March.
In an effort to try to alleviate the crisis, the EU said on Monday it hoped to get a new mechanism for channelling aid to the Palestinians, bypassing Hamas, up and running soon.
In recent weeks, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have repeatedly fired home-made rockets into Israel, causing damage and occasional injury. In response Israel has bombarded Gaza with artillery, killing militants and some civilians.
Abbas called on Palestinians to "stop firing useless rockets", saying it gave Israel the excuse to escalate attacks.
He also put himself forward again as a peace partner, saying he remained ready to talk to Israel. "We want to make a just and permanent peace with you," he said.
"Let's make this year the year of peace, let's sit at the negotiations table away from the policy of dictations and unilateralism. Stop making excuses there's no Palestinian partner, the partner is there." (Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and David Brunnstrom in Brussels)
posted by Marko at 5/15/2006 07:59:00 AM
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