Ismail Haniyeh waves as he receives congratulations in Gaza City on January 26 following Hamas's victory in the Palestinian elections. - REUTERS
GAZA (Reuters):
PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT Mahmoud Abbas asked Hamas prime minister-designate Ismail Haniyeh yesterday to form a government, officials said.
At a meeting in Gaza, Abbas handed a letter of accreditation to Haniyeh, a 43-year-old Gazan seen by many Palestinians as a pragmatist, formally appointing him to put together an adminis-tration.
Haniyeh will have up to five weeks to do so.
Hamas, which is dedicated to Israel's destruction, crushed Abbas's Fatah faction in the January 25 parliamentary elections on a platform of rooting out corruption in the Palestinian Authority.
Abbas has urged Hamas to follow his guidelines and recognise past Palestinian peace deals with Israel and commit itself to seeking statehood through non-violence.
The Islamic militant group has rejected talks with Israel and said it had a right to pursue armed resistance against the Jewish state. Hamas said it hoped to form a broad coalition with other factions.
Israel says it cannot consider dealing with Hamas until it renounced violence, recognised its right to exist and accepted past interim peace accords.
