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Palestinian PM says talks are just on hold, not frozen

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas yesterday denied that talks on forming a coalition government had been frozen by President Mahmoud Abbas.

Haniyeh said talks would only be put on hold while Abbas was attending meetings at the UN this week.

Abbas aides had earlier said negotiations were frozen because Hamas had reneged on the terms of the deal to form a coalition government.

"I assure all parties that there is no retreat," Haniyeh told reporters.

"There is an agreement between myself and President Abbas to resume the dialogue when he comes back," he said.

In a statement, Abbas' spokesman Nabil Amr earlier yesterday announced "the freezing of efforts to form the national unity government."

"All the president's efforts have been disturbed by a number of statements from leaders of Hamas announcing the lack of readiness of any government formed by Hamas to respect the obligations and agreements of the Palestinian Liberation Organization," he said.

Last week, Abbas and Haniya announced that after weeks of tortuous discussions, they had finally agreed on a platform for a national unity government.

Palestinians have expressed hope that the forming of a new Cabinet will lead the West -- where in many countries the organization is listed as a terrorist entity -- to lift a freeze on resources to Palestinian government, which is greatly dependent on outside aid.

That freeze had been imposed after the Islamist Hamas organization assumed power in the Palestinian Territories in March.

Abbas' move came one day after Haniya told reporters that any future unity government -- which many people believe he is expected to head -- would not necessarily recognize past agreements that had been signed with the state of Israel.

"I want to clarify the outlines of the political program of the national unity government, which is based on the accord of national unity" that was agreed on by most Palestinian factions in late June, Haniya told reporters in Gaza City on Saturday.

"This document does not speak about recognizing the agreements signed with the Israeli occupation," Haniya said.

Rather, he said that the outline of the political program "talks about dealing with these agreements in a way that serves the greater interests of the Palestinian people. And that does not mean that we will recognize these agreements."
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