Hamas dismisses reports saying talks on coalition government were frozen

A spokesman for the Hamas-led government dismissed on Sunday media reports that talks on forming a coalition government have stopped.

The council of ministers would not be officially informed the suspension of the talks until Abbas returned from the United States, said spokesman Ghazi Hamad.

Instead, Hamad said that discussions between Abbas and the Hamas cabinet have "made good progress in forming a national unity government in spite of some obstacles."

Media reports have earlier said that Abbas has frozen the talks on forming a coalition government after Prime Minister Ismail Haneya, who is also a senior Hamas official, said that his new government would not accept the signed peace deals with Israel.

"There are no deals with the Israeli occupation," Haneya told reporters in front of his office in Gaza City on Saturday.

Haneya's remarks drew criticism immediately from Abbas' political camp as Yasser Abed Rabbo, from Fatah and a senior member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), said that "statements of Hamas leaders have embarrassed President Abbas and weakened his credibility regionally and internationally."

He clarified that Abbas' decision to freeze the process of forming the coalition government was made after Hamas retreated from former pledges to abide by all deals that the PLO signed.

He said that the talks would be resumed after Abbas returned from the United States.

Abbas is scheduled to meet U.S. President George W. Bush and his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.

During their meeting, Abbas would try to convince his U.S. counterpart to accept the new political program of the national coalition government, according to Rabbo.

On Aug. 17, Abbas and Haneya agreed on forming a coalition government with a new moderate political program based on Prisoners Document of National Accordance, which calls for a Palestinian statehood alongside Israel and a truce with Israel to end the ongoing violence in the Palestinian territories.

However, Fatah leaders accused Hamas of thwarting the agreement by releasing remarks contradicting the content of the agreement which is designated to meet the international community's demands of renouncing violence and recognizing Israel.

Source: Xinhua