Hamas Agrees to Abide by UN Resolutions Regarding Israel Under Fatah Pact
Hamas was told during reconciliation negotiations with Fatah that it would have to abide by international law and United Nations resolutions on talks with Israel as part of a unity government, Palestinian billionaire Munib Masri said.
Hamas doesn’t have to recognize Israel even if it is part of the unity government, said Masri, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Palestine Central Council, which helped mediate the deal.
Hamas hasn’t yet decided on these issues “and it will become clearer in the next two days,” Masri said in a phone interview. “However, they took a very important step in that they will not take any unilateral decisions and will only act within a national plan that sets policy decisions.”
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, which governs the West Bank, reached an understanding on April 27 aimed at ending a nearly four-year rift and paving the way for national elections and a unity government with the Islamic Hamas movement that rules the Gaza Strip.
Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the U.S. and European Union, hasn’t participated in peace talks with the Jewish state, which it refuses to recognize.
Peace negotiations between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fell apart last year a few weeks after they began when Israel refused to extend a partial 10-month construction freeze in West Bank settlements. Abbas has said he will resume negotiations only when all building is halted.
Abbas said last week that Fatah, which seeks a negotiated peace agreement with Israel leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, will set the policy in any unity government with Hamas.
To contact the reporter on this story: Massoud A. Derhally in Beirut at mderhally@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net
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