A surprise deal to end decades of rivalry between Fatah and Hamas was yesterday welcomed by the Palestinian leadership, but denounced by Israel as crossing “a red line.”
The agreement, announced in Cairo on Wednesday, saw the secular Fatah party that dominates the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, and Gaza’s Islamist rulers, Hamas, agree to work together to form a transitional government ahead of elections, which will take place within a year.
Wednesday’s deal, which came after 18 months of fruitless talks, drew praise from Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who expressed the hope it would be “an essential and important step to proceed to the immediate establishment of national unity.”
It was also hailed by Iran, which said it would “speed up developments in the Palestinian arena and the gaining of great victories” against Israel.
However, it received the opposite reaction in Israel, where hawkish Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak both warned that the Jewish state would never accept a Hamas government.
“With this accord, a red line has been crossed,” Lieberman told Israel’s military radio yesterday, threatening an array of retaliatory measures, while Barak said the army would “use an iron fist to deal with any threat” and vowed to “never negotiate with Hamas.”
The agreement will see the two parties work together to form an interim government of independent politicians chosen by both sides that would operate until elections can be held, Fatah delegation chief Azzam al-Ahmad said by phone from Cairo.
He said the factions, which have been bitter enemies since the early 1990s, had agreed to set up a “government of independents.”
“This government will be tasked with preparing for presidential and legislative elections within a year,” he said.
Senior Hamas official Mahmud Zahar, who also attended the talks, told reporters in Cairo the transitional government would be made up of personalities selected by both sides.
Representatives of Hamas and Fatah are scheduled to return to Cairo at the end of next week to sign the document, which also lays out terms for the release of political detainees by both sides, Zahar said.
He also confirmed that Fatah and Hamas had settled their differences over the security issue, which had bedeviled the past 18 months of negotiations, which began after a failed attempt to ink a deal in October 2009.
Mussa Abu Marzuk, a top member of Hamas’s exiled leadership in Damascus, told reporters the two parties would sign the deal on Wednesday, after which they would begin immediate consultations on forming the interim government.
Shortly after the deal was announced, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued Abbas with an ultimatum.
“Choose between peace with Israel or peace with Hamas,” he said, warning a deal would pave the way for Gaza’s Hamas to extend their control over the West Bank.
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