PLO committee to reject Hamas gov't

From today's Jerusalem Post

Yasser Abd Rabbo, a member of the PLO executive committee that convened in Ramallah on Wednesday, said that the committee did not intend to approve the Hamas government, since the organization did not recognize the PLO or the Palestinian Authority's basic laws.

He stated that the executive committee would demand that Hamas change its platform. Fatah Chairman Azzam al-Ahmed, who also attended the meeting, reiterated the statement that prime minister elect Ismail Haniyeh must see to it that the Hamas platform be changed before the new government could be approved.

Israel Radio reported that Wednesday's meeting commenced with a moment of silence in memory of former Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin who was killed by Israeli forces in 2004.

Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas planned on departing to Cairo for consultations with Egyptian officials next Sunday.

Meanwhile, exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal warned that as long as the occupation continued and as long as the United States supported Israel, then terrorism would only escalate, and Israel would not feel stability.

Mashaal insisted that all forms of resistance, including armed resistance, were legitimate for all Palestinians, including Hamas.

The United Arab Emirates, after a meeting in Abu Dhabi with a Hamas delegation headed by Mashaal, stated that they would continue to fund the Palestinians even after the Hamas government would be inaugurated.

Saudi Arabia made a similar promise during the previous leg of the Hamas delegation's journey.
It was perhaps the Arab pledges that led incoming PA Finance Minister Omar Abdel Razek to assert that a Hamas-led Palestinian government could continue to function even without the money that the Quartet threatened to withhold. He said that if the Quartet were in fact to deny the Palestinians money, the results would be severe, though not disastrous.

Razek noted that the Palestinians would accept funding from any source, so long as it wasn't conditioned by any demands.