Dubai: President Donald Trump’s special Mideast envoy says if Hamas wants to play a role in any Palestinian government it must renounce violence and commit to peaceful negotiations with Israel.
Jason Greenblatt’s statement Thursday was the first American comment on the advancing reconciliation efforts between the rival Palestinian Fatah and Hamas factions, and echoed Israeli demands.
Greenblatt says Hamas must meet the international demands to recognise Israel and accept previous agreements with it.
He says “it must accept these basic requirements” to take part in government. Hamas has always refused similar demands in the past.
Under Egyptian auspices, the Palestinian factions last week announced a preliminary agreement and have formed committees to sort out unresolved issues, most notably who will control Hamas’ massive weapons arsenal. Talks continue with Fatah. “This is blatant interference in Palestinian affairs because it is the right of our people to choose its government according to their supreme strategic interests,” senior Hamas official Bassem Naim told AFP.
He accused Greenblatt of bowing to pressure from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government.
“This statement comes under pressure from the extreme right-wing Netanyahu government and is in line with the Netanyahu statement from two days ago,” Naim said.
Hamas and rival party Fatah have agreed a deal that should see the Islamists hand over control of Gaza to the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority by December 1, with talks also expected on forming a unity government.
Israel has launched three brutal wars on Gaza since 2008.
A decade ago, Hamas forces seized the Gaza Strip from Fatah forces in a brief civil war.
Past Egyptian mediation attempts to reconcile the two rivals failed to achieve lasting results.
The preliminary deal reached last week came after two days of talks between Hamas and Fatah in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
Under the emerging agreement, Hamas would hand over responsibilities of governing Gaza to the West Bank-based government of Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah.
Officials close to the talks said the sides agreed to set up committees to work out the details — in the past a mechanism that quickly led to deadlock.
One committee would have four months to determine who among thousands of Hamas civil servants would be able to join the new government. Another committee would merge 3,000 Palestinian National Authority loyalists into Gaza’s Hamas-run police force.
Negotiators also agreed that control of the Gaza side of the border crossing with Egypt would be handed to Hamdallah’s government, said a senior Hamas official who spoke on condition of anonymity, also pending the formal announcement.
