Actualité - US Threatens Palestinian President

Ramallah, Sept 18 (Prensa Latina) - The United States threatened the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas Monday with breaking off all contact if he creates a new executive of national unity without the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) accepting US demands.

The quartet for the Middle East, United States, Russia, United Nations and the European Union demands that Hamas recognize the state of Israel, lay down arms and accept the agreements signed by the Organization for the Liberation of Palestine since 1993.

Tel Aviv also joins the demands and preconditions those requirements to the establishment of any kind of negotiation with the Palestine National Authority (ANP) presided over by Abbas.

US president George W. Bush warned that if a government between Al Fatah and Hamas was created that does not accomplish the three conditions, he will interrupt contacts with Ramallah, according to the Palestinian newspaper Al Quds.

The conversations between the two main movements Al Fatah and Hamas have gone successfully, to the point that Abbas announced the creation of the government soon, in which its current Prime Minister Ismail Haniye will be ratified.

Haniye recently accused the US of undermining the efforts between the Palestinian organizations to achieve the new administration, asserting that "they don't want unity among Palestinians and are hindering political rapprochement."

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared that the new government will have to comply with the quartet's demands for the Middle East.

Since Hamas won the legislative elections last January 25 and assumed the government leadership in March, the United States, Israel and the EU declared a financial blockade that brought about a financial and human crisis in the autonomous territories.

(Prensa Latina News Agency)