Palestinian factions sign power-sharing deal

Rival Palestinian leaders have signed an agreement on a power-sharing government in Saudi-brokered talks.

Under the deal, struck in Mecca last night, the militant Hamas group promised to “respect” peace deals with Israel.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, of the mainstream Fatah movement, and Khaled Mashaal, leader of Hamas, signed the accord at a ceremony hosted by Saudi King Abdullah in a palace overlooking the Kaaba, Islam’s holiest shrine.

The deal sets out the principles of the coalition government, including a promise that it would “respect” previous peace deals with Israel, delegates said. It also divided up Cabinet posts in the new government.

Announcing the agreement at the ceremony, Abbas aide Nabil Amr read a letter in which Abbas designated prime minister Ismail Haniyeh, of Hamas, to draw up the new government according to the formula agreed on in the talks within five weeks.

Abbas said the deal would “satisfy our people … and bring us to the shores of peace … This initiative has been crowned with success."

Mashaal said the accord “will unify our ranks. There is a commitment and unity. We will preserve this partnership."

The letter of designation said the new government led by Haniyeh would “respect” past peace deals signed with Israel by the Palestine Liberation Organisation, dominated by Fatah.

It said it would also follow a document drawn up last summer by Hamas and Fatah activists jailed in Israeli prisons. That document called for a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, the areas Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War.

Hamas’s agreement to that part of the platform is its most concrete commitment yet to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, although Hamas has underlined that it does not necessarily mean recognition of Israel.

In drawing up the new government, Hamas is to propose an independent candidate to hold the crucial post of interior minister, who would control the Palestinian security forces. Abbas would then approve the candidate.

The Interior Ministry post was one of the main obstacles to the deal, with each side loathe to see it in the hands of the other.

Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said the new Palestinian government must accept all three international conditions – renouncing violence, recognising Israel and accepting past peace accords.

“Israel expects a new Palestinian government to respect and accept all three of the international community principles – recognition of Israel, acceptance of all former agreements and renunciation of all terror and violence,” Eisin said.

She would not say whether Israel believed the guidelines of the new government fulfilled those demands.