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Last Updated: Feb 18th, 2008 - 14:39:01 |
Middle East Online UNITED NATIONS - The United States and Israel have put pressure on Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas not to cut a deal with a Hamas government.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israel Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told Abbas in separate talks in New York on Monday that there could be no compromise on the conditions that had been set by the international community.
"Secretary Rice was very clear about the need to see the three Quartet principles without anything else," Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian lawmaker and close associate of the Palestinian leader, told reporters.
He was speaking after more than an hour of talks between Abbas and Livni, their first in five months, after an earlier meeting between the Palestinian leader and the top US diplomat.
Livni told reporters: "From Israel's perspective, there is a need for any future Palestinian government to meet completely the three requirements of the international community."
After Hamas won the Palestinian election in January, the diplomatic Quartet -- the United States, Russia, European Union and United Nations, which drew up the Middle East peace "road map" -- demanded that the Palestinian government acknowledge Israel's right to exist, renounce violence and recognise past agreements with the Jewish state.
Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the United States because of its armed conflict with Israel.
He is set to resume discussions on his return from New York.
The diplomatic moves on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly came ahead of talks between US President George W. Bush and Abbas on Wednesday.
It is to be their first meeting since October 2005.
Meanwhile, Arab countries are pushing for a new mechanism to relaunch the stalled Middle East peace process after the UN-brokered truce that ended a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon last month.
At their request, the UN Security Council has tentatively scheduled a ministerial session on Thursday to discuss a "mechanism" based on a 2002 Arab initiative, which proposed a normalization of relations with Israel in exchange for the return of all land occupied by the Jewish state since 1967.
Abbas also committed to Livni Monday to make "maximum efforts" to help free an Israeli soldier held by Palestinian militants, his aide said.
Abbas called it a "very, very positive meeting. We talked a lot about everything," while Livni said the encounter had been "a very good, important and constructive meeting."
Palestinian governing movement Hamas, whose armed wing claimed joint responsibility for the June 25 raid in which Corporal Gilad Shalit was captured, said Sunday that progress has been made in talks to release the conscript.
Erekat said Abbas had "committed to making the maximum efforts to close this chapter (the Israeli soldier) along with the cessation of violence by the two sides".
Livni said "firstly, and the most important issue for Israel is the unconditional release of Shalit."
Meanwhile, Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya said Monday that negotiations with president Mahmud Abbas to form a national unity government had not reached a dead end.
"The appearances of problems here or there do not amount to a dead end in the road because everyone has serious and honorable intentions to see the idea of a national unity government come to fruition," Haniya said in a statement released by the Hamas-led government after its weekly cabinet meeting.
Haniya denied reports that emerged Sunday that Abbas had frozen the negotiations pending his return from New York, where he is due to address the UN General Assembly.
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