World

Hamas Ready For 'Two-State' Solution?

April 7, 2006 / 8:09 AM EDT / CBS/AP

Hamas is ready for a "two-state" solution with Israel, a senior official said Friday, in what would appear to be a softening in the militant group's position that would imply recognition of the Jewish state for the first time.

The official said Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas would discuss the idea with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a moderate, in a meeting in Gaza City later Friday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the proposal has not yet been submitted.

This comes the same day that Israeli aircraft fired missiles into a car carrying Palestinian militants, killing six people including a bomb maker and his 5-year-old daughter, in the deadliest Israeli attack since the Hamas-led Palestinian government took office.

The Israeli strike targeted a training camp of the Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella group for gunmen from various factions, including many with ties to the Islamic militant Hamas. The group has attacked Israeli targets in the past, including planting bombs under tanks.

The Hamas official's suggestion that the party may be ready to recognize Israel comes just one day after Haniyeh had told The Associated Press that Hamas would not recognize Israel.

The contradicting statements come at a time when Hamas is under intense international pressure to moderate its views, including recognizing Israel, renouncing violence and accepting existing peace agreements. In Brussels, the EU announced Friday it would cut off direct aid payments to the Hamas-led government.

The idea of accepting a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an apparent attempt by Hamas to appease the international community, without having to state directly that it is recognizing Israel.

Hamas officials have said they would only grant such recognition in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from all lands Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast War, the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.

In other developments:

The Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, said his newly-formed Cabinet would work with President Mahmoud Abbas to resolve the Palestinian Authority's looming financial crisis. Abbas seized more powers from the Islamic militants this week, including control over security forces.

The State Department announced Friday that the United States will cancel or suspend up to $411 million in Palestinian aid out of concern the money could help the new Hamas leaders of the government there. At the same time, the United States will redirect some of that money to humanitarian projects for the impoverished Palestinian people. Humanitarian assistance will rise by 57 percent to $287 million over several years, the department said. Another $13 million will go for new vetting procedures to ensure that even humanitarian aid funneled through the U.N. Relief Agency and approved charities does not end up in Hamas hands, the department said.

In a similar move, the EU has cut off direct aid payments to the Hamas-led Palestinian government because of its refusal to renounce violence and recognize Israel, an EU official said Friday. "Payments to or through the Palestinian Authority are not currently being authorized," said an official. This amounts to collective punishment of the Palestinian people, a Hamas spokesman responded Friday.

Early Friday morning, Israeli aircraft fired missiles at three sites in Gaza City, including a security compound not far from Abbas' office, witnesses said. No one was hurt. The other two targets were offices of Abbas' Fatah Party, they said. The airstrikes followed three rocket attacks from Gaza at Israel, causing some damage but no casualties.

Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man during an overnight arrest raid in the West Bank, though details of the shooting were in dispute. Fatah Alla Yaaesh, 55, said he became alarmed when he heard a knock at his door during the night and called relatives for help. When his relatives arrived in a car, the army shot at the vehicle, he said. One occupant, Wafaa Yaeesh, 22, was killed and four others were wounded, he said.

On Thursday, the PLO ordered the Hamas-led Foreign Ministry to coordinate with it before making major pronouncements on diplomatic policy. The PLO is technically in charge of the Palestinians' foreign affairs.

In exchange for backing a two-state solution, Hamas wants Abbas to grant the group its "constitutional rights," the senior Hamas official said. Abbas has taken steps recently to curb Hamas' power in security matters. On Thursday, Abbas named a longtime ally to supervise the security forces that are supposed to be under the authority of the Hamas Cabinet.

Sitting beneath a picture of Abbas and the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Haniyeh said he rejected any attempts to take power away from Hamas, which won Jan. 25 parliamentary elections. His Cabinet was sworn in last week.

"There are attempts to create parallel frameworks to some ministries in the Palestinian government," Haniyeh said in an interview with The Associated Press at his Gaza City headquarters. "But I don't think (Abbas) can keep up this pressure and take away power from this government."

Haniyeh said Abbas had assured him the security forces would remain under the control of the Hamas-led Cabinet, which, he said, did not take power "on the back of a tank" but in "transparent and fair elections."

But hours later, Abbas appointed a longtime ally, Rashid Abu Shbak, to head the three security services that fall under new Interior Minister Said Siyam, in addition to agencies already under the president's aegis. Though Siyam would technically be Abu Shbak's boss, any dispute between the two would be resolved in the Abbas-headed National Security Council.

Abu Shbak said he was authorized to hire and fire officers in the three security branches. "Any recruitment of directors of deputy directors for any of the three services will be made through me," he said. His appointment reduced Hamas' authority over the security apparatus to cutting checks for its 58,000 officers.

Abbas has said he wants to resume peace talks with Israel, which has shunned the Hamas government, and Haniyeh said he would not stand in the way of those talks.

"(Abbas,) as the head of the Palestinian Authority and the PLO, can move on political fronts and negotiate with whomever he wants. What is important is what will be offered to the Palestinian people," Haniyeh said.

When asked if he was a pragmatic man and would recognize Israel, he switched to English: "That is a big question."

He then said there was no change in Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence and respect all past accords signed by the Palestinian Authority, the three conditions Israel and the West have imposed for dealing with Hamas, which is listed as a terror group by the U.S. and European Union.

At the same time, he struck a conciliatory tone when speaking about the United States, saying, "We don't want feelings of animosity to remain in the region, not toward the U.S. administration and not toward the West."

He also denied reports that al Qaeda militants had infiltrated Palestinian territories.