Abbas likely to seek deal over militants' weapons
Reuters
Date: 09-06-05
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) - The war of words in Gaza between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority grows more bitter by the day as Israel prepares to complete its Gaza pullout.
But President Mahmoud Abbas is likely to seek a deal, rather than confrontation, with militant groups threatening to defy a ban on carrying weapons publicly, political analysts say.
"At the most Abbas will try to reach a new formula under which Hamas will agree not to show weapons publicly in the streets," Israeli analyst Ehud Yaari, who specializes in Palestinian issues, said from Jerusalem.
"They will call it a stabilization of the situation and I believe the Americans and the Europeans will buy it," he said.
Abbas is under pressure from the United States, Israel and the European Union to provide security in Gaza after Israeli troops leave the occupied territory, expected to be completed by September 15.
A U.S.-backed peace "road map," along with demands for Israel to stop the expansion of settlements on occupied land, calls on the Palestinian Authority to confiscate illegal weapons and dismantle "terrorist capabilities and infrastructure."
Abbas has voiced concerns of Palestinian civil war should he use force to disarm gunmen and in recent remarks President Bush has steered clear of demanding he do so.
But Palestinian Interior Minister Nasser Youssef, who has wide security powers, has been hammering home a message that weapons militants have paraded through the streets in the past 4-1/2 years of fighting with Israel will no longer be tolerated.
"In the Gaza Strip after the Israelis leave ... there can be no arms but that of the (Palestinian Authority) and the security institutions," Youssef said on Sunday.
Hamas, which advocates Israel's destruction but has signed on, at least until the end of the year, to a truce Abbas brokered with Israel last February, said the issue was not up for discussion.
DISCORD
Flexing its muscles, Hamas published for the first time on its Web site this week photos of leaders of its armed wing, showing their areas of responsibility within the Gaza Strip. The move heightened tensions with the Palestinian Authority.
Discord rose further when the Authority contradicted Hamas charges that an Israeli air strike was behind an explosion that killed four people on Monday. The Interior Ministry said the blast was due to bomb making and criticized the group for stockpiling arms in a residential area.
The militant group has vowed its gunmen will continue to deploy near the Israeli frontier to "to prevent Israel from thinking about carrying out raids."
Palestinian political analyst Talal Awkal said that with Hamas running for the first time in a parliamentary election, scheduled for January, it was unlikely to seek a violent face-off with the Palestinian Authority.
Hamas, which also runs a social welfare network, is popular among many Palestinians in Gaza and hopes to make a strong showing at the ballot box, at the expense of Abbas's mainstream Fatah faction.
"Abbas has provided an example twice, a ceasefire in 2003 and the current ceasefire and the two formulas were accepted by the Americans and the world," Awkal said.
"I believe this time also a certain formula and a compromise by Abu Mazen with the factions will be accepted too and will respond to international demands."
It will be an alternative to the dismantling of armed groups and help Abbas avoid internal strife, Awkal said.
Youssef, meanwhile, renewed an invitation to gunmen to join the security forces after the Israeli pullout, promising to "put them in the positions they deserve."
Yaari said in any case, Abbas has neither the intention nor the ability to disarm Hamas.
"I believe calm we have seen so far was not because of major PA (Palestinian Authority) successes but because of whether Hamas wanted to take action or cease action," Yaari said.
(Writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem)
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