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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 4 OctOber 2017
First rifts emerge in Palestinian reconciliation talks

By FARES AKRAM while, said his government
Associated Press will not accept a recon-
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) ciliation deal between rival
— A new round of Pales- Palestinian factions that
tinian reconciliation talks puts Israel at risk.
experienced its first sign of He said any deal must in-
trouble on Tuesday as the clude recognizing Israel,
Hamas militant group said disbanding Hamas’ military
it would not give up its vast wing and cutting ties with
weapons arsenal, putting Hamas’ patron Iran.
it at odds with both the ri- “We are not prepared to
val Fatah movement and accept bogus reconcilia-
Israel. tions” in which the Palestin-
The tough comments by ians reconcile “at the ex-
Hamas’ supreme leader, pense of our existence,” he
Ismail Haniyeh, provided a said.A day after his festive
reminder of the long road arrival, Hamdallah held
that lies ahead after this his first Cabinet meeting
week’s launch of talks with in Gaza on Tuesday in an-
President Mahmoud Ab- other symbolic step toward
bas’ Fatah movement. reconciliation.
Abbas’ prime minister, His Cabinet ministers were Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah waves to the media as he arrives to head the Cabinet
session in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ former official resident in Gaza City, Tuesday,
Rami Hamdallah, is in then to head to their lo- Oct. 3, 2017. Hamdallah has held the first government meeting in the Gaza Strip as part of a major
Gaza, where he has re- cal offices to meet with reconciliation effort to end the 10-year rift between Fatah and Hamas.
ceived a warm welcome staffers.Hamas, an Islamic (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra)
in what is by far the most militant group that seeks control of Gaza from Ab- the Palestinians divided be- territories located on oppo-
ambitious attempt by the Israel’s destruction, seized bas’ forces in 2007, leaving tween rival governments in site sides of Israel. q
Palestinian rivals to end a
10-year rift.
But Hamdallah’s visit is
largely symbolic, and the
negotiations on key stick-
ing points, including the
future of Hamas’ military
force, only start next week
in Egypt.
In a TV interview, Haniyeh
said his group, which has
fought three wars with Is-
rael, would never give up
its armed struggle against
the Jewish state.
“As long as there is occu-
pation on the ground, our
people have the right to
possess weapons and re-
sist the occupation with
all forms of resistance,” he
told the private On TV sta-
tion.In a gesture to Abbas,
he said Hamas will not go
back to war against Israel
unilaterally. “We are ready
to negotiate with the Pal-
estinian factions and Fatah
on unifying the decision of
peace and war,” he said.
Such concessions are un-
likely to satisfy Abbas, who
issued his own tough state-
ment late Monday saying
“everything must be in the
hands of the Palestinian
Authority.”
He said specifically he
would not agree to repro-
duce the “Hezbollah mod-
el” of Lebanon, where the
armed militant group acts
freely under the watch of a
weak central government.
Israel’s prime minister, Ben-
jamin Netanyahu, mean-