Ramallah: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said today the new unity government he is set to head with the backing of Hamas would reject violence and recognise Israel and existing agreements.
Abbas was speaking to the Palestine Liberation Organisation`s Central Council, which had convened to chart a course of action after Israel suspended US-brokered peace talks in response to a reconciliation deal with the Islamist Hamas.
The agreement between the rival Palestinian factions came as the United States and Israel had been hoping to extend the faltering peace talks beyond their April 29 deadline.
Israel said it would not negotiate with a government backed by Hamas, the armed Islamist movement ruling the Gaza Strip, which is pledged to the destruction of the Jewish state and has always rejected peace talks.
"The upcoming government will obey my policy," Abbas told the PLO council. "I recognise Israel and reject violence and terrorism, and recognise international commitments."
And he stressed that the new government would not be charged with negotiations, but rather the PLO, which "represents the entire Palestinian people".
A senior Hamas official in Gaza concurred in a reacting to what he called a "mostly positive" speech.
"It is not the government`s mission to take care of political issues," Bassem Naim, an adviser to Hamas` Gaza premier Ismail Haniya, told AFP.
"It has only three main missions: unifying the Palestinian organisations, preparing for elections and reconstructing Gaza,"
The PLO is the internationally recognised representative of the Palestinians and their interlocutor in peace talks.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) was created as part of the Oslo peace process in the 1990s to administer the occupied Palestinian territories.
Abbas heads both, as well as the secular Fatah party, which dominates the PLO.
Under the Wednesday PLO-Hamas agreement, Abbas would head an "independent government" of technocrats, to be formed within five weeks.
That new interim administration would be charged with holding parliamentary and presidential elections within six months of taking office.
Israel and Western nations view Hamas as a terrorist organisation, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Abbas must choose between reconciling with the Islamist group and negotiating peace with his country.
