The vague unity agreement signed in Saudi Arabia between the feuding Palestinian Fatah and Hamas movements may, someday, improve the chances of a peace agreement between the Palestinians and Israel. But until the new Palestinian coalition agrees to the three conditions for peace talks outlined by the Middle East “Quartet” of the U.S., European Union, Russia and the UN, it’s hard to see the new government as a partner with Israel in the peace process.
The three conditions are recognition of Israel, renunciation of violence and acceptance of all agreements endorsed by prior Palestinian governments.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has been trying to market the vaguely worded deal as the best way to end deadly Palestinian infighting and renew the peace process with Israel.
The U.S. has cautiously welcomed the Palestinian deal as Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert prepare to meet with Feb. 19 in Israel for talks that will be attended by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Olmert, while willing to confer with Abbas, has said he won’t talk about the three most potentially critical issues – Palestinian refugees, the status of Jerusalem and an Israeli withdrawal to pre-1967 frontiers – until the Palestinians explicitly recognize Israel’s right to exist and meet the other “quartet” terms.
The U.S. envoy to the United Nations, acting Ambassador Alejandro Wolff, told reporters in New York Tuesday he sides with Abbas on the agenda question, saying that Olmert should be willing to discuss all issues of the Palestinian conflict when he meets the Palestinian leader.
“Any time I have seen an agenda the secretary of state wants to undertake, all issues are discussed,” Wolff said.
But Wolff balanced that support for Abbas’ broad agenda by rejecting Palestinian Authority Ambassador Riyad Mansour’s plea in the Security Council for a lifting of the U.S. financial blockade on the Palestinian territories. The sanctions were put in place after Hamas, which the U.S. considers a terrorist group, won control of the Palestinian Authority in January 2006 elections. Woolf said the sanctions would remain until the new government clearly meets the Quartet conditions, which Wolff said were not clearly addressed in the communique announcing the Fatah-Hamas pact in Mecca.
Modest though it may be, the Hamas-Fatah agreement at least makes it easier for the Abbas, Olmert and Rice meeting to proceed with a sense of purpose.
