Israeli threat to cease talks during Rice visit

Israel tonight threatened to stop dealing with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, if he goes ahead with plans to join Hamas in a new government, as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Arab allies sought a way to push forward the stalled peace process.

After separate meetings with Ms Rice and Mr Abbas, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, urged the United States to continue seeking to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord.

But Israel said it would stop dealing with Mr Abbas on larger peace issues if he went ahead and formed the coalition government with Hamas.

After the meetings, Mr Abbas acknowledged for the first time that sessions yesterday in Jerusalem with Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and Ms Rice had been “tense and difficult” but said “it was not a failure and it will be followed by other meetings.”

Abbas said Israel may have “misunderstood” the agreement reached in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, between his moderate Fatah faction and the militant Hamas group, according to Jordan’s official Petra news agency.

“We told Israel that this agreement was made to protect the unity of the Palestinian people and its national interests,” Mr Abbas was quoted as saying.

“The agreement is an expression of support for Palestinian interests, but Israel may have misunderstood it.”

But in Israel, Miri Eisin, spokeswoman for Olmert, ruled out any talks on a final peace deal with Abbas if he went ahead with plans to form a new Cabinet including Hamas.

Israeli talks with Abbas would be limited to matters such as improving living conditions for the Palestinians and ending Palestinian attacks against Israel.

“We’re not talking about negotiations on final status issues,” Eisin said.

Ms Rice invited security and intelligence chiefs from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates to Amman for the talks to ask their advice on what, if anything, can be done further to persuade Hamas to back down.

The US and European Union insist that any Palestinian government must recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept past peace accords. Hamas has rejected those conditions. The unity accord pledges only to “respect” past agreements.