Hamas doesn't want peace: Israel

Israel's Vice Premier Shimon Peres said the national unity Govt the Palestinians were trying to establish would be nothing more than a facade.

Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres said on Wednesday that the national unity government the Palestinians were trying to establish would be nothing more than a "facade," because Hamas militants who would be represented aren't interested in peace.

HT Image

The moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas of the Fatah Party, declared last week that efforts to form such a government had broken down, but Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, the militantly anti-Israel group that now leads the Palestinian Cabinet, denied negotiations had reached a dead end.

Hamas would use such a government in an effort to restore international funding that dried up after it took power, Peres said.

"Hamas doesn't want peace, even if we give them '67 borders," Peres said, referring to Israel's lines before capturing the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war.

"Hamas wants to use Fatah as a facade to get money." The talks between Abbas and Hamas foundered over the militant group's refusal to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept existing peace deals.