London – International mediators demanded Monday that any new Palestinian government formed by the Islamist group Hamas renounce violence, recognize Israel and pursue a negotiated settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The statement by the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations fell short of calls by the Bush administration and Israel to cut off international financing for a Palestinian government formed by Hamas. The United States, the United Nations and the European Union consider Hamas a terrorist organization.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice won only a warning that countries and financial institutions would reconsider assistance if the government refused to embrace the quartet’s conditions.
“The quartet concluded that it was inevitable that future assistance to any new government would be reviewed by donors against that government’s commitments to the principles of nonviolence, recognition of Israel and acceptance of previous agreements and obligations” to negotiate a two-state solution to the conflict, said the statement, which was read by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Rice said at a news conference with Annan and other quartet representatives that the statement bound all international donors to “insist that any future Palestinian government will live up to these obligations.”
“Those who have been elected by the Palestinian people have an obligation, and that obligation is to speak to the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a better life and for a peaceful life,” she said.
The quartet issued the statement after more than two hours of talks to consider Hamas’ startling landslide in Palestinian parliamentary elections last week.
Hamas has carried out numerous suicide bombings against Israelis and has refused to disarm. For the past year, however, it largely has abided by a cease- fire, although its charter calls for the destruction of Israel.
Hamas has refused to change its stance since its election victory.
Hamas candidates and allied politicians won 80 seats out of 132 in the Palestinian parliament, trouncing Fatah, the faction founded by the late Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.
The quartet appeared to be giving Hamas time to reconsider its hard-line positions while it works to form a new government, a process that could take up to three months.
