| GEO World | | Palestine rejects Israel peace plan | Updated at: 1429 PST, Wednesday, August 13, 2008
 RAMALLAH: Palestinian has rejected Hamas’s proposed government programme because it does not meet his demands and those of the international community on relations with Israel, a senior Palestinian official said Saturday.
Abbas “rejected the Hamas government programme which was presented to him by prime minister-designate Ismail Haniya because the principal political points in it have to be clear for the international community,” the official said, asking not be identified.
They also “have to respect the decisions of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the programme of President Abbas which is based on peace,” he added. “Negotiations are the way to peace between Israel and the Palestinians.”
On February 21, Abbas formally tasked Haniya with forming the next cabinet following the radical Islamist faction’s massive victory in the Palestinian general election on January 25.
Since then, Haniya has consulted with a number of factions, most notably Abbas’s own Fatah, with whom it has still not been able to reach agreement on joining a Hamas-led coalition.
Abbas met with Haniya on Friday and received from him a letter spelling out Hamas’s proposed programme. No details of the letter were revealed at the time, nor were they by the official speaking to AFP on Saturday.
“Haniyeh’s one-page response letter included vague wording on their position on the agreements signed with Israel,” a senior Palestinian official told Reuters. |  |
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