GAZA CITY, 23 September 2006 — Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said yesterday he will not head a government that recognizes Israel, striking a potential blow to efforts to set up a more moderate ruling coalition.

Haniyeh spoke after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas indicated that a planned national unity government between Hamas and his Fatah movement would recognize the Jewish state.

An Abbas aide said Hamas would not be expected to issue a statement of recognition, but would be asked to recognize agreements signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization, including the PLO’s mutual recognition agreement with Israel, reached in 1993. Abbas heads the PLO, in addition to Fatah.

It was not clear whether Hamas would accept such an arrangement, with implied recognition of Israel, or whether Hamas was backing out of a coalition agreement reached earlier this month.

In a mosque sermon in the Gaza town of Beit Lahiya yesterday, Haniyeh laid out his group’s position.

“I personally will not head any government that recognizes Israel,” said Haniyeh, considered a leader of Hamas’ more pragmatic wing.

Haniyeh said Hamas is ready to establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War, and to honor a long-term truce with Israel. “We support establishing a Palestinian state in the land of 1967 at this stage, but in return for a cease-fire, not recognition,” Haniyeh said.

At the United Nations on Thursday, Abbas indicated that the planned national unity government between Hamas and his Fatah Party would recognize the Jewish state.

Fatah and Hamas officials said privately that it wasn’t clear whether Abbas meant to solicit international support for the planned government, or set a new condition to forming a coalition with Hamas. Abbas was still in New York yesterday, and couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

Hamas, which swept Palestinian parliamentary elections in January, currently rules alone. But Abbas, elected separately last year, has been toiling for months to broaden the government in the hope of easing crushing international sanctions imposed on the Hamas-led government to force it to soften its anti-Israel ideology.

Earlier this month, the two sides announced they would govern together, and strive to establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel — an objective that implies recognition of the Jewish state.

But coalition talks have faltered because the West and Israel have balked at restoring hundreds of millions of dollars in funding until Hamas clearly states its willingness to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept existing peace agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.

Abbas told a UN forum on Thursday that the national unity government would commit to all past agreements between the Palestinians and Israel, including letters exchanged by the two sides in 1993 that call for mutual recognition and the renunciation of violence.

In agreeing to form a coalition with Fatah, Hamas agreed to “respect” past agreements, but didn’t commit to them, calling into question Abbas’ ability to maneuver in any future peacemaking. Hamas is afraid that committing to past agreements would be tantamount to recognizing Israel, which it is sworn to destroy.

— With input from agencies