PNA: Hamas Have No Choice But to Continue Dialogue

PNA Officials : PNA, Hamas Have No Choice But to Continue Dialogue

Minister Shaath :"We either reach a voluntary cease-fire ... or there will be no deal with Israel or road map,"

Minister Abed Rabbo: Israeli Assassinations ‘Main Obstacle’ to Implementing ‘Roadmap’

Minister Abu Amr : " made a commitment “not to resort to force” in internal affairs".

The Palestine National Authority (PNA) blamed Israel for the breakdown of Palestinian national dialogue by ignoring Israeli obligations to the “roadmap” to Middle East peace and the resumption of extra-judicial assassinations of suspected Palestinian activists by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).

PNA Minister of Cabinet Affairs Yasser Abed Rabbo on Friday condemned Israel for ignoring its obligations to the “roadmap” to Middle East peace, Israel Radio reported.

Abed Rabbo said that facts on the ground prove that Israel’s military operations are continuing to take place and called on the US to make every effort to force Israel to implement the “roadmap”.

One day after the Wednesday Palestinian-Israeli-US summit meeting convened in Aqaba, an underground IOF unit assassinated two Hamas activists in a raid on the village of Attiel near the West Bank city of Tulkarem.

On Friday, the Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” announced that it had broken off its dialogue with PNA Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen).

The Israeli assassinations “constitute the main obstacle hindering international efforts to implement the (US-sponsored) roadmap” to peace in the Middle East, Abed Rabbo said.

Commenting on the Hamas move, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabeel Shaath said PM Abbas would never use force against Hamas and risk civil war, meaning Hamas' decision could derail the peace plan.

"We either reach a voluntary cease-fire ... or there will be no deal with Israel or road map," Shaath said in an interview with Future TV, based in Lebanon. "Our friends in Hamas and Jihad should acknowledge this and act responsibly."

Minister Shaath accused Hamas leaders of jumping the gun by pulling out of the talks before Abbas could meet with them to explain what happened in closed meetings at the summit.

"They listened to the speeches on television and declared their decision to stop the dialogue and stop listening," he said.

Palestinian cabinet minister of culture Ziad Abu Amr said PM.Abbas would do his utmost to steer clear of armed conflict with the group. The PNA government, Abu Amr said, made a commitment “not to resort to force” in internal affairs.

Abu Amr, who was appointed by PM.Abbas to be in charge of liaising with Hamas and other groups involved in the inter-Palestinian national dialogue, blamed Israel’s latest killing of the two Hamas activists near the West Bank city of Tulkarem for the breakdown in talks.

Abu Amr said he was confident Hamas would return to the negotiations “hopefully by Sunday or Monday” and said contacts between the Palestinian leadership and Hamas leaders abroad are proceeding.

“Both the government and Hamas have no choice but to continue with the dialogue because we have both committed ourselves to avoiding internal conflict,” he said.

Meanwhile on Thursday, President Yasser Arafat charged that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon offered Palestinians nothing “on the ground” at a US-led summit.

The IOF extra-judicial killings on Thursday came after Israeli “Defense” Minister Shaul Mofaz chaired a meeting of senior military officers and decided not to ease the closure restrictions imposed on Palestinians in occupied territory, despite Sharon’s statements in Aqaba a day earlier.

“Until now, Sharon has done nothing on the ground,” president Arafat told reporters following a meeting with a UNICEF official in his battered compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Hamas said on Friday it was breaking off talks with PM. Abbas on ending its attacks on Israeli targets, in a strong challenge to peace pledges he made at the US-led Aqaba summit.

“We have stopped the dialogue with the Palestinian Authority,” Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin told Reuters. “This is our choice and we have no alternative. (Armed) resistance will continue.”

Reinforcing Yassin’s words, thousands of Hamas supporters staged rallies across the Gaza Strip Friday vowing to continue attacks against Israelis.

Similarly, the Islamic Jihad and two secular groups had already announced they would refuse to lay down their arms.

Hamas’ statement Friday formally rejected the Aqaba summit.

The statement said PM.Abbas had "ignored the right of Palestinian refugees to return and ... the suffering of the Palestinian people inflicted by the crimes of the Zionist occupation, but he nevertheless referred to the suffering of the Jews."

Sheikh Yassin also rejected the Aqaba agreement, telling reporters it "ignored the right of refugees to return, forgot the prisoners, ignored Jerusalem and ignored the rest of our faithful causes."

In his final declaration at Aqaba summit PM.Abbas said, "the process is one of direct negotiations to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, resolve all the permanent status issues and end the occupation that began in 1967 under which Palestinians have suffered so much.

"At the same time, we do not ignore the suffering of the Jews throughout history. It is time to bring all this suffering to an end."

He did say there was "no military solution to our conflict," he said, adding: "We will exert our full efforts using all our resources to end the militarisation of the Intifada, and we will succeed. The armed intifada must end, and we must resort to peaceful means in our quest to end the occupation, the suffering of the Palestinians and the Israelis, and to establish our Palestinian state."

However, the Palestinian leadership strongly criticized Sharon’s position at the Aqaba summit and said he had used the talks to reiterate Tel Aviv's reservations to the “roadmap.”

"Sharon once again repeated the Israeli reservations to the road map," said the statement, and "he did not openly commit himself to end all violence and military escalation against the Palestinian people," the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee said in a statement, following a meeting chaired by Arafat and attended by Abu Mazen in Ramallah on Fraiday.

The White House said the United States would keep working to end Middle East violence despite the announcement by Hamas that it had broken off truce talks with Prime Minister Abbas. But White House national security spokesman Michael Anton described Hamas as an "enemy of peace."

"We will continue to work with the parties to try to bring peace to the region," Anton told AFP.

mean while ,many Palestinian officials say that Hamas walkout may not be final and there's still a chance for a truce

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