Report: PA unity gov't 'clinically dead'

Contacts between Abbas and Haniyeh have been indefinitely frozen.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Haniyeh 298.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
Haniyeh 298.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
A Palestinian unity government may be "clinically dead," the Palestinian Authority newspaper El-Ayam reported on Monday. According to the report, there are serious differences of opinion between Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh over the basic principle of a unity government, and that contacts between the two leaders have been indefinitely frozen. One of the main points of contention is Hamas' demand that the clauses relating to deals forged between Israel and the PLO be changed. Deputy head of Hamas's politburo Musa Abu Mazuk said that Fatah was trying to force Hamas to adopt the Arab Initiative, with which Hamas disagrees. In March 2002, the Arab League made an offer to Israel in a seven-point document, also known as the Beirut initiative. All 22 Arab countries agreed to full peace with Israel in exchange for a "full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967,' the acceptance of a sovereign Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital and the achievement of 'a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194."