BICOM

Jason Greenblatt, the US Special Representative for International Negotiations, has said any Palestinian Government must commit to non-violence and the implementation of existing agreements, as Fatah and Hamas negotiate a reconciliation agreement.

In a statement, Greenblatt said: “The United States welcomes efforts to create the conditions for the Palestinian Authority to fully assume its responsibilities in Gaza… The United States stresses that any Palestinian government must unambiguously and explicitly commit to non-violence, recognition of the State of Israel, acceptance of previous agreements and obligations between the parties, and peaceful negotiations”.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) will hold its Cabinet meeting in Gaza today. PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah told a crowd of 2,000 in Gaza yesterday: “The only way to statehood is through unity. We are coming to Gaza again to deepen the reconciliation and end the split.”

After today’s Cabinet meeting, reconciliation talks between Hamas and Fatah are scheduled to continue next week in Cairo, with the Egyptians playing a significant role in the negotiations.

Writing in Maariv, Assaf Gibor said: “Egyptian officials, Egyptian intelligence is expected to send envoys to the Gaza Strip to supervise the implementation of the reconciliation agreement. In practice, that means that Egypt, which has been Israel’s security partner in the past several years, is taking responsibility for the Gaza Strip. That development is likely to strengthen Israeli-Egyptian security and intelligence ties, and might serve to reduce the risk to Israel posed by Hamas.”

PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas Political Bureau Director Ismail Haniya also spoke on the phone on Sunday evening and emphasised the need for reconciliation and Palestinian unity.

Hamas said that it expects Abbas to immediately lift the economic sanctions that had been imposed on the Hamas government in Gaza, but a senior source in Ramallah told Israel Hayom that the sanctions would be lifted gradually in keeping with the implementation of the reconciliation understandings with Hamas.

Abbas has also explicitly said he will reject any proposal in which the PA runs civil issues and Hamas maintains its influence and its military infrastructure. “Everything needs to be in the hands of the Palestinian Authority,” he told Egypt’s CBC  television station, in an interview. “I’ll be even more clear — I will not accept reproducing the Hezbollah experience in Lebanon…We are one state, one system, one law and one weapon.”

Hamas is clear that it will not give up its weapons or scale down its military infrastructure. There are also disagreements between the PA and Hamas over control of border crossings and the role of former senior Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan, who has close ties with Egypt and has been involved in channelling money to Hamas in Gaza, but is a political opponent of Abbas.