WEST BANK: Palestinian President Abbas arrives for Palestinian Parliamentary swearing in ceremony

Record ID: 565038

  • Title: WEST BANK: Palestinian President Abbas arrives for Palestinian Parliamentary swearing in ceremony
  • Date: 18th February 2006
  • Summary: WIDE SHOT ABBAS ENTERING BUILDING
  • Embargoed: 5th March 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA6LZLZGJN9IC696XWCBBMNZCL2
  • Story Text: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived at his office on Saturday (February 18, 2006) to attend the parliamentary swearing in ceremony of parliament, with Hamas as the assembly's majority bloc.
    Abbas will ask Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, to ensure its government recognise interim peace negotiations with Israel and aim to halt violence, Palestinian officials said.
    However, Abbas's parliament speech will not explicitly insist on such measures as a condition for forming a cabinet, a top Palestinian official said.
    "But he will clearly tell Hamas he expects its government to pursue the policies of the previous governments, that it must respect the Authority's signed agreements with Israel and pursue peaceful means to resist occupation," the official told Reuters.
    Israel said it would wait until after Hamas, which beat President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah in a Jan. 25 election, assumes control of parliament before deciding whether to implement tough new measures against the Palestinians to put pressure on the militant group.
    The United States and other world powers have urged nations to boycott Hamas, which has masterminded more than 60 suicide attacks against Israel since a 2000 uprising, unless it disarms and recognises the Jewish state and past peace deals.
    Russia has said it would invite Hamas to Moscow for talks that France said could advance Middle East peace.
    The militant group won control of 74 seats in the 132-member Legislative Council, beating Fatah's 45 and allowing Hamas to pick a new prime minister and form the next government.
    An Abbas aide said the president would give the prime minister a letter outlining policies that the new cabinet must adopt. Hamas officials said although the group did not wish to confront Abbas, it intended to present its own agenda.
    Israel says it wants to maintain ties with Abbas but that it will not renew peace talks, stalled by violence since 2004, until Hamas and other militant groups disarm and recognise the Jewish state and its interim peace deals.
    Hamas, elected on an anti-corruption platform, said it would propose its own peace initiative that would include a long-term truce with Israel if the Jewish state fulfilled its demands, like giving up all West Bank land it seized in the 1967 Middle East War.
    Hamas, which has largely adhered to a truce since March last year, has refused to give up its weapons.
    Hamas deputies in Gaza will participate in the parliament session, held in the Palestinian Legislative Council in the West Bank City of Ramallah, through a video link. Israel has rejected requests to allow the militant group to cross its borders.
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