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Hamas contemplating government without Fatah

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Al-Khalil, March 3, IRNA
Palestine-Hamas-Fatah
Hamas, which Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas last week asked to form the next government, has finalized plans to form an alternative government in case current efforts to include Fatah reaches a dead-end.

Hamas officials told IRNA that "Scenario-2" was being finalized in anticipation of the possible failure of efforts to include Fatah in the upcoming government.

"We are not placing all our eggs in one basket, We will not allow the task of forming the government to be held hostage to Fatah's whims and internal differences," said Hamas lawmaker Nayef Rajoub.

Rajoub said Fatah was insisting the next government adopts "all the agreements the PLO and PA signed with Israel."
"Of course we can't accept these vague agreements. We will not recognize Israel in return for vague promises about a vague state.

Israel toyed around with Fatah for 13 years, we will not make the same mistakes again."
Asked what the main obstacles impeding the formation of the government were, Rajoub said Fatah was not united and didn't speak with one voice .

He said Hamas was awaiting a final decision from Fatah on whether to join the Hamas-led government. Such a decision is expected when Fatah's Revolutionary Council will convene in Ramallah on Saturday, 4 March.

There are wide differences within Fatah on whether to join the government.

According to Fatah sources, most Fatah leaders who lost the elections are vehemently against joining the government on the ground that this would amount to "helping Hamas carry its burden." However, other Fatah leaders, especially those associated with the Tunis-based Fatah leader Farouq Qaddumi, reportedly support joining the government out of concern for Palestinian national interests.

PA President Abbas reportedly supports the idea of Fatah joining the government but believes that Hamas ought to make concessions.

Fatah denies charges that it is insisting that Hamas recognize Israel as a precondition for joining the government.

Fatah lawmaker Abdullah Abdullah told IRNA that Fatah would want Hamas to accept the "national program" which is based on the two -state solution.

"We don't demand a free recognition of Israel by Hamas," he said.

Hamas, which controls as many as 75 seats of the 132 seats making up the Palestinian Legislative Council, can easily form the next government without having to enter into a coalition with other factions.

However, the movement prefers a broad-based government or government of national unity which would stand a better chance to obtain international acceptance.

Meanwhile, negotiations between Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) have made substantial progress toward the inclusion of the leftist faction into the next government.

Hamas and PFLP leaders reportedly agreed that the political program of the government ought to be based on the so-called Palestinian constants, including total and full Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories, including East al-Quds, dismantling of Jewish settlements, and the repatriation of Palestinian refugees to their former homes and villages in what is now Israel.

The PFLP, an established member of the PLO, joined Hamas in opposing the Oslo Accords.

However, following the collapse of the former Soviet Union, the group, which was once the second most important Palestinian faction after Fatah, steadily dwindled with the emergence of Hamas.

In the recent legislative elections, the PFLP won only three out of the council's 132 seats.

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