Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday extended a deadline for Hamas to accept a document that implicitly recognizes Israel, temporarily averting a showdown with the Islamic movement.
Abbas said he would give Hamas until tomorrow to agree to the plan or face a national referendum. Abbas had initially given Hamas until yesterday to respond to the ultimatum, but decided to give the group additional time after consulting with the powerful Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) powerful executive committee.
Abbas wants to hold the nonbinding vote to put pressure on the Hamas-led government to accept the plan, which calls for a Palestinian state alongside Israel, implying recognition of the Jewish state. Hamas, which is committed to Israel's destruction, has demanded changes to the proposal and said it will boycott the referendum.
PHOTO: AFP
During yesterday's meeting, the PLO Executive Committee endorsed the document and authorized Abbas to call his referendum, said Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior Palestinian official. He said Abbas will not accept any changes to the document.
"President Abbas has informed the PLO leadership that he is going to prepare for the referendum by the end of the week and he will announce this at a press conference before the weekend," Abed Rabbo said. "We are giving enough time, about three days, for our brothers in Hamas to reconsider their position."
The referendum would be held 40 days after the announcement. Abed Rabbo said negotiations with Hamas could continue until the day of the vote.
Hamas officials welcomed the offer to extend an ongoing "dialogue" over the document but said they remained opposed to any deadlines.
"We still have a chance to make this dialogue a success," said Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh at a Cabinet meeting in Gaza City. "Therefore we ask for more meetings and more dialogue and that we don't use the language of days and time as a threat."
Abbas has been involved in a power struggle with Hamas since the Islamists defeated Fatah in legislative elections in January.
In the latest violence, rocket propelled grenades were fired yesterday at a security compound in the Gaza Strip, slightly wounding three maintenance workers, officials said. The compound houses the headquarters of the Preventive Security agency, which is loyal to Abbas and has been at the center of the infighting.
Abbas' referendum plan calls on the Palestinian public to endorse a plan formulated by senior Fatah and Hamas prisoners held by Israel. But Hamas' exiled leadership, which has the final say in policy decisions, has refused to endorse the plan, officials say.
Abbas believes the plan provides a way to lift crushing economic sanctions against the Palestinians and to enable him to resume peace talks with Israel.
A vote could deeply embarrass Hamas. Polls show the prisoners' document would win broad approval. A survey released yesterday showed 77 percent of Palestinians support Abbas' call to hold a referendum on the proposal, and the same percentage would vote in favor of the proposal.
The survey of 1,200 Palestinians was conducted by Bir Zeit University in the West Bank and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from