JERUSALEM, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- The chief Palestinian negotiator said the Mecca agreement was designed to end internal fighting and one should hold judgment on the envisaged new government.
Saeb Erakat, spoke to reporters following a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem, which was held after last week's agreement between the nationalist Palestinian Fatah and the Islamic Hamas, which agreed to form a national unity government.
Erakat said negotiations with Israel are under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority's president, as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, or in other words, not the government.
"The president reiterated this commitment actually to the letter of mutual recognition between the Government of Israel and the PLO, we have recognized Israel. The renunciation of violence, mutually, and the acceptance and adherence and respect to agreements signed between the PLO and Israel," he said.
In charging Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas to form a national unity government, Abbas talked of the need to "honor agreements signed," Erakat said.
The Mecca agreement "was directed to ...stop the internal fighting. One day in Gaza we had 27 Palestinians killed and 270 wounded. It's a priority for us," he said.
