Hamas talks to militants about coalition government

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – The Islamist group Hamas opened talks on
Monday with other militant factions about forming a new
Palestinian government, and assured them it would not crack
down on their fighters despite international pressure.

Election winner Hamas said its goal was to establish as
broad a coalition as possible as it faced a halt in vital tax
funds from Israel and a threatened boycott by major powers if
it refused to renounce violence and recognize the Jewish state.

In talks with one of the factions, Hamas again signaled its
readiness for a long-term truce if Israel withdraws from lands
it occupied in the 1967 war.

But the head of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security
service, Yuval Diskin, said a truce alone would be
unacceptable. Diskin called a Hamas-run state a long-term
“strategic threat.”

With an Israeli helicopter gunship circling overhead, a
Hamas delegation huddled with leaders of the Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a group involved in a more
than 5-year Palestinian uprising.

After the meeting, a top PFLP leader, Rabah Muhana, hinted
the group would agree to join a Hamas-led government, calling
the outcome of the talks “positive.”

Another PFLP leader, Kayed al-Ghoul, said Hamas leaders
“promised that after they assume power they will not arrest
fighters and they will free fighters in Palestinian jails.”

Hamas has rebuffed international calls to disarm its own
fighters.

The head of Hamas’s parliamentary bloc, Mahmoud al-Zahar,
was upbeat about the chances of bringing the PFLP into Hamas’s
coalition.

He said Hamas would form a new government within two weeks.
“It will take maximum two weeks, maximum,” Zahar told
reporters.

Hamas also held talks with Islamic Jihad, a group
responsible for several suicide bombings in Israel, and planned
to meet the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(DFLP).

FACING SANCTIONS

Hamas also planned to hold talks on Monday with Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas, whose long-dominant Fatah faction was
trounced by Hamas in the parliamentary election on January 25.

Salah al-Bardaweel, spokesman for Hamas’s parliamentary
bloc, said Hamas would officially present Abbas with its choice
for prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh.

But it was unclear whether Hamas, which has largely
observed a ceasefire since last year, would succeed in bringing
all of the other militant groups on board.

Islamic Jihad, whose West Bank commander was killed
overnight by Israeli troops, was expected to turn down Hamas’s
offer to join the government.

Witnesses outside the house where the talks took place said
an Israeli military helicopter was seen circling overhead. The
Israeli military declined to comment.

Hamas became the majority bloc in parliament on Saturday,
prompting Israel to halt its monthly transfer of millions of
dollars to the Palestinian Authority.

Abbas said the move had plunged the Palestinians into a
financial crisis.

Israel sought to play down the outcome of Monday’s talks
between militant factions.

“The exact composition of the incoming Palestinian
government is of lesser importance,” said Israeli Foreign
Ministry spokesman Mark Regev.

“The essential fact is that the incoming government will be
dominated by Hamas, the ministers will be appointed by a
Hamas-led parliament and it will be Hamas that will be
conducting the orchestra.”

In fresh violence on Monday, Israeli troops carried out a
raid in the West Bank city of Nablus and ambushed gunmen from
Islamic Jihad, killing two, including the group’s West Bank
commander, Palestinian sources said. Four gunmen were wounded.

The Israeli military often targets Islamic Jihad, which in
addition to a campaign of suicide bombings has claimed
responsibility for firing rockets into Israel.

(Additional reporting by Atef Sa’ad in Nablus; Allyn
Fisher-Ilan and Adam Entous in Jerusalem)