RAMALLAH, West Bank, May 25 (UPI) -- Hamas and Islamic Jihad rejected President Mahmoud Abbas' pledge to submit a pact for national consensus to referendum as a precondition to a national dialogue.
"The remarks of the president surprised us...." Hamas spokesman Adnan Asfour said.
Abbas told representatives from various Palestinian factions who met in Ramallah Thursday he will organize a referendum within 40 days if the groups did not agree on the document for joint action put forward by senior prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Asfour said the prisoners' document "is one of the initiatives that will be discussed and taken into consideration like other initiatives, although it has a special value since its was the outcome of heros of our people in prisons."
Islamic Jihad also rejected the referendum theory expressing reservation on certain points, notably limiting armed resistance to occupied Palestinian territories.
Abbas told the meeting, "I am not defying anyone and I don't want a never ending dialogue," warning against the dangers of failing to reach an agreement.
"The nation is in danger and we cannot wait longer... In case no agreement is achieved in 10 days, the document will be submitted to national referendum," Abbas added.
The document drawn by imprisoned officials from Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine provides a common vision for joint action. It stresses the right of Palestinians to self-determination and creating their own independent state on the territories captured in 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital.
The document also affirms the Palestinian people's right to resistance by all means inside the 1967 territories in parallel to political work, including negotiations, and recognizes the Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
