Palestinian unity plan 'a facade'

ISRAELI Vice Premier Shimon Peres yesterday said the national unity government Palestinians are trying to establish would be nothing more than a “facade” because Hamas militants aren’t interested in peace.

The moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas of the Fatah Party, declared last week that efforts to form such a government had broken down. Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, the militantly anti-Israel group that now leads the Palestinian Cabinet, denied negotiations had reached a dead-end.

Hamas would use such a government in an effort to restore international funding that dried up after it took power, Peres said.