Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday that he would not dismiss the new Hamas-led government at this time despite the movement's refusal to renounce violence and embrace peacemaking with Israel.
Abbas last week vetoed Hamas' nomination of a senior Palestinian activist to a top security post.
"Hamas is still acting as if it were in opposition, not in government. It has to face realities, it has to be in contact with Israel to meet the daily needs of the Palestinian people," Abbas told Turkish CNN. "Let's wait a while and see if it will change," he said in remarks translated from English into Turkish. "The constitution gives me the right to dismiss the government but I do not want to use this power."
Abbas also warned against plans by Israel's acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to set the Jewish state's border around settlements in the occupied West Bank in the absence of peace talks. "It is possible to reach a very fair solution. If terrorism is isolated, it is possible to reach peace in less than one year," he said.
"If Israel moves on its own and imposes a solution, there will be a settlement for 5 or 10 years but then the cycle of violence will resume."
