PALESTINE: Abbas to push Palestinian unity government to accept Quartet demands/Hamas-Fatah meeting canceled, in major setback to Palestinian unity...

Abbas to push Palestinian unity government to accept Quartet demands

Obama has stressed that recent Fatah-Hamas reconciliation raises profound 

and legitimate questions for Israel as 

Hamas does not recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

By Haaretz Service

Sources close to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday that he will seek to form a government of technocrats by mid-June which will accept the demands of the Quartet, including recognition of Israel. 

The sources said that Abbas also appears determined to see Salam Fayyad appointed as prime minister on the unity government, despite widespread objection, as he believes that without Fayyad, the international criticism he has received because of the reconciliation agreement with Hamas cannot be countered.

The sources believe that Hamas will ultimately agree to the appointment.

United States President Barack Obama has reiterated that the recent Fatah-Hamas reconciliation raises profound and legitimate questions for Israel.

In his Middle East speech last week, Obama said that "Palestinian leaders will not achieve peace or prosperity if Hamas insists on a path of terror and rejection. And Palestinians will never realize their independence by denying the right of Israel to exist."

In his speech, Obama urged Israelis and Palestinians to renew peace talks, but stressed that the Palestinians' efforts to delegitimize Israel will fail, and rejected the Palestinian initiative to attain recognition in the United Nations.

Abbas welcomed Obama's efforts to renew talks with Israel that collapsed last year but said on Wednesday after a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy that Israel was offering "nothing we can build on" for peace and that without progress he would push for UN.Hamas to participate in any future Palestinian government, senior official says.

Salah al-Bardaweel, a high-ranking Hamas leader in Gaza, refutes press reports that the group may exclude itself from a future government to avoid international isolation.

Hamas will participate in any future Palestinian government, a senior official from the Islamist group said Thursday, refuting press reports that it might opt not to take part in a future administration. 

"Nothing would prevent us" from participating in any government after new elections, Salah al-Bardaweel, a high-ranking Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip told the German Press Agency DPA.

The comments came after earlier media reports Thursday that Hamas might exclude itself from a future government - even if it won in elections - if that helped such a government to avoid international isolation.

"This is totally incorrect and totally untrue," said al- Bardaweel, arguing that the reports were intended to isolate Hamas politically and diplomatically.

Hamas in April agreed to a reconciliation with the secular Fatah, the other major Palestinian bloc, after years of a sometimes bloody stand-off between the two, clearing the way for the two to form a unity government.

But Hamas' participation in any future government could turn into a diplomatic stumbling block for any Palestinian government, as Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist and its refusal to honor past Israeli-Palestinian agreements keeps entities like the United States and the European Union from recognizing it.

Hamas emerged as the surprise victor of 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, beating the secular Fatah party of President Mahmoud Abbas. 

The United State and the European Union almost immediately placed the new government under a diplomatic and political embargo because of Hamas' policies.

A Hamas-led unity government with Fatah, which came unto being in March 2007, did not succeed in ending Hamas' isolation. The coalition itself fell apart in June of that year, when Hamas gunmen in the Gaza Strip battled security personnel loyal to Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, and seized sole control of the salient.

Abbas pulled his faction out of the unity government, but Hamas rejected his dismissal of Hamas leader Ismail Haniya from his post of prime minister. Subsequently, the West Bank and Gaza Strip became divided politically as well as geographically.

Hamas-Fatah meeting canceled, in major setback to Palestinian unity

Officials from Hamas and Fatah acknowledge that 

there are still disagreements over who the prime minister will be for the new unity government.

By The Associated Press

Palestinian officials say a high-profile meeting between the leaders of the rival Fatah and Hamas movements has been called off.

Tuesday's meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshal had been expected to name the prime minister over an emerging reconciliation government.

But officials from both sides acknowledge there are still disagreements over who the prime minister will be. They say the meeting has been postponed indefinitely.

The officials spoke Sunday on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement.

The decision is a setback to last month's unity deal between Hamas and Fatah. At that time, they pledged to end a four-year rift that has left the Palestinians with rival governments in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Reconciliation is essential for the Palestinians to fulfill their goal of establishing an independent state in the two areas, which lie on opposite sides of Israel.

The two factions have been divided over how to deal with Israel. Fatah favors peace with Israel, while Hamas has rejected international demands to renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist.