Haniyeh Renews Call for Arab Boycott of Peace Conference

6 October 2007

Gaza – Ma'an – Deposed Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called on Arab States, especially Egypt and Saudi Arabia, to reconsider their decision to participate in the US-sponsored peace conference in late November.

Though Haniyeh's Hamas cabinet still controls the Gaza Strip, his government has been deliberately excluded from the conference. American and Israeli officials view the Hamas regime as illegitimate, despite Hamas' offers to restore most government ministries to the control of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.

Speaking to a Palestinian newspaper reporter in Gaza on Saturday, Haniyeh said: "We will address our Arab brothers, namely Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and request that they reconsider any decisions related to the participation in that conference. We will make special reference to Saudi Arabia for its political, historical and religious importance in the Arab world. The same thing applies to Egypt." Haniyeh called on these countries to avoid providing coverage for any additional abandonment of Palestinian rights."

Dim prospects for peace

On Friday officials announced that the conference will be postponed beyond the original starting date in order to allow Israeli and Palestinian negotiators more time to hammer out a preliminary agreement going into the conference. While Palestinian officials have repeatedly called for negotiations on final status issues—the fate of Palestinian refugees, the status of Jerusalem, and the borders of a Palestinian State—Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wants the bilateral negotiations to result in a rough "declaration of interests."

Haniyeh also expressed doubt that the conference or the related bilateral talks could reach an agreement that would minimally fulfill Palestinians' unalienable rights. He noted that Israel is likely to refuse the right of return for Palestinian refugees, refuse the establishment of Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, and fail to withdraw from territories occupied in 1967.

Comparing the upcoming conference to the Oslo Accords, Haniyeh expects the meeting to result in, at best, a framework for further negotiations. In Haniyeh's view, the past 13 years under the Oslo agreement have seen little progress toward a substantive peace deal.