Abbas: Unity gov't will recognize Israel

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday that the planned national unity government will recognize Israel and renounce violence, in his most direct such commitment yet amid intense diplomacy to resolve the Mideast conflict.

The statement came as Abbas' moderate Fatah faction struggles to win agreement from the governing Hamas to recognize Israel in negotiations to form a national unity government. The Islamic group Hamas won elections in January and has refused to recognize Israel, end violence and honor past agreements with Israel.

Abbas told the UN General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting Thursday that he has recently sought to establish a government of national unity "that is consistent with international and Arab legitimacy" and that responds to the demands of the key parties promoting Mideast peace — recognition, ending violence and honoring past agreements.

'Rabin, Arafat – great leaders'

Abbas and Hamas, which currently rules alone, agreed last week to form a national unity government that would strive to establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel — implying recognition of the Jewish state.

Abbas said Thursday that they would do so.

"I would like to reaffirm that any future Palestinian government will commit to all the agreements that the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian National Authority have committed to," he said.

These include the letters of mutual recognition exchanged on Sept. 9, 1993, by the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, whom Abbas called "the two great late leaders."

"These letters contain mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO, renunciation of violence, and commitment to negotiations as the path toward reaching a permanent solution that will lead to the establishment of the independent state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel," Abbas said.

"Any future government will commit to imposing security and order, to ending the phenomena of multiple militias, indiscipline and chaos and to the rule of law," he said.

Abbas, who met Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Monday in the first working session between high-ranking Israeli and Palestinian officials in four months, also welcomed recent signs that Israel might resume contacts.

"We have heard lately from the government of Israel that it will abandon the policy of unilateralism and one-sided actions," he said. "This is encouraging, provided that the alternative is not stagnation or the imposition of facts on the ground, but rather a return to the negotiation table and reaching a comprehensive solution to all of the permanent status issues."