Israel, US set new conditions

A day ahead of a three-way meeting with the Palestinians, the U S and Israel have agreed to shun any new Palestinian government that won’t renounce violence, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday.

A day ahead of a three-way meeting with the Palestinians, the U S and Israel have agreed to shun any new Palestinian government that won’t renounce violence, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday. “A Palestinian government that won’t accept the Quartet conditions won’t receive recognition and cooperation,” Olmert said. “The US and Israeli positions are totally identical on this issue,” he added.

The so-called Quartet of Mideast negotiators — the US, European Union, U N and Russia — has set these demands as a condition for lifting crippling international sanctions. The platform of a new Palestinian power-sharing agreement, reached in Saudi Arabia earlier this month, speaks only of “respect” for existing peace deals.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Olmert are to meet separately on Sunday with US Secretary Condoleezza Rice ahead of their three-way meeting on Monday. In a further indication of tensions before the meeting, Rice and Abbas cancelled a press conference that had been scheduled to follow their talks, Abbas’ office said.

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Monday’s summit was initially billed as an attempt to revive long-stalled peace talks. However, friction over the power-sharing deal has eclipsed that.

Neither Washington nor Israel have said, however, that they would boycott Abbas, who, as head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, would represent the Palestinians in any peace talks.

Peace negotiations broke down more than six years back in an explosion of violence between the two sides.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah of Hamas, who has been charged with putting together the next government, said the Palestinians must hold firm against international criticism. “We stand by President in defending this agreement and facing outside pressure,” Haniyah told reporters outside his office in Gaza City.

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After a meeting in Jerusalem on Saturday, Rice and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni reiterated their demands in case any Palestinian government toe the international line. Livni said the power-sharing agreement does “not meet the requirements” of the international community. Abbas, she added, must isolate the moderates from the radicals in the Palestinian Authority. Rice said the United States would not judge the new Palestinian government until it has been established, but acknowledged that coalition talks were overshadowing Monday’s summit. Abbas aides have said U S officials warned them that Washington would boycott a government with the platform formulated in Saudi Arabia. “We are between the announcement of the intention to form a government and the actual formation of that government,” Rice said. “Despite the complications it’s an important time to have these discussions.”

Abbas on Saturday told U S envoy David Welch that he had reached the best possible deal he could reach with Hamas, and that the world would have to live with it, Abbas aides said.