Lieberman: National unity deal partners Abbas with terror

FM says PA partnership with Hamas means they themselves are terrorists; calls on int'l community not to legitimize Hamas gov't.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF, JPOST.COM STAFF
Avigdor Lieberman 521 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Avigdor Lieberman 521
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
The Palestinian Authority's partnership with Hamas means that the PA has partnered with terrorists, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in reaction to the Hamas-Fatah national unity agreement Friday morning as he met with Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias.
"Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] and the PA must understand that it is not possible to be a partner with terrorists without being a partner to terror," Lieberman said.
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"The international community must not legitimize the government whose face is the face of Abu Mazen, and whose arms are the arms of Hamas, who launches missiles at citizens and stains innocents with blood," Lieberman told Christofias.
Lieberman said that "the inability of the international community to make even a declarative decision at the [United Nations] Security Council condemning Syria for the violence and murder of innocent citizens by the [Syrian President Bashar] Assad regime, raises the question in Israel of: If and how much the international community can be relied upon for its balanced and honest considerations in regards to the situation between Israel and the Palestinians."
"This feeling is currently being strengthened by the conciliatory approach, in opposition to the Quartet's decision, taken by some countries towards Hamas - a terror organization whose declared, primary aim is the destruction of Israel," Lieberman added.
Lieberman traveled to Cyprus to discuss bilateral relations, events in the Middle East and the Hamas-Fatah unity agreement and its effect on Israeli-Palestinian relations.
Also on Friday, President Shimon Peres said that the Hamas-Fatah unity deal states that the PA will control the West Bank and Hamas will control the Gaza Strip, in contradiction to earlier comments by Abbas that the Palestinians will be ruled by one body.
Peres said that if, in preparation for PA elections, political platforms will include the destruction of Israel and continued subordination to Iran, it is irrelevant what the results for next year's elections will be.