Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who currently heads an 'emergency government', submitted his resignation ahead of the talks and has vowed to step down once a national unity government is formed. (Maan Images)

1. What is the current status of the Palest- inian national unity talks?

2. What conditions has the U.S. placed on recognizing a national unity government?

3. How has Hamas responded to the U.S.' three conditions?

4. Do the parties likely to form the next Israeli government accept the same three conditions that the U.S. has demanded of Hamas?

5. How will U.S. recognition or lack of recognition affect its ability to play a constructive role in brokering Palestinian/ Israeli peace?

6. What happened when the Palestinians formed a national unity government in 2007?

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1. What is the current status of the Palestinian national unity talks?

The Egyptian-sponsored talks aimed at forming a Palestinian national unity government have so far resulted in an agreement reached on Sunday, March 15 by Palestinian groups to hold presidential and legislative elections by January 25, 2010.

Of the 12 factions meeting in Egypt, the two major players were Hamas, which won democratic elections in 2006 after which Israel and the international community instituted crippling economic sanctions against the Palestinian Authority (PA), and Fatah, the once-dominant political force led by PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

The talks were officially adjourned on Thursday, March 19, but spokesmen say another round will be called in the near future. While agreeing to hold elections, differences persist on four remaining issues being negotiated:

1. Composition of a unity cabinet, namely whether it will comprise ministers representing various political factions or non-partisan technocrats;


2. Reform of the Palestinian security services in the West Bank and Gaza


3. Integration of Hamas and other groups within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the internationally recognized representative of the Palestinian people, which is currently dominated by Fatah and its allies; and


4. Strategies to encourage national reconciliation after a 21-month crisis between Fatah and Hamas.

Spokesmen for several factions - including Hamas and Fatah - have reported positively on the progress of the talks, expressing cautious optimism that a full agreement will be reached in future talks.

2. What conditions has the U.S. placed on recognizing a national unity government?

The U.S. has stated that in order to be recognized any Palestinian unity government must meet three conditions (initially demanded of Hamas after its 2006 electoral victory): recognition of Israel, an acceptance of previous agreements between the PLO and Israel, and a renunciation of violence. In addition, sources say that American officials have hinted that they will only recognize a new unity government if it is headed by Salam Fayyad, who recently resigned from his appointed position as Palestinian prime minister in order to facilitate the formation of a unity government.

3. How has Hamas responded to the U.S.' three conditions?

Hamas political chief Khaled Mashal said as early as March 2006 that Hamas would be willing to "end its armed conflict with Israel" in exchange for a full withdrawal to the 1967 borders, implying its willingness to accept the conditions in exchange for an end of Israel's military occupation. Mashal reiterated his stance regarding acceptance of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders in a March 2008 interview on the Al Jazeera English television network, and a month later agreed during a meeting with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in Damascus that Hamas would accept a negotiated settlement between the Palestinian Authority and Israel leading to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, provided that Palestinians approve the deal in a vote.

4. Do the parties likely to form the next Israeli government accept the three conditions that the U.S. has demanded of Hamas?

No. The charters of Likud, the party of presumptive Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and many of his likely coalition partners - including the National Union and The Jewish Home - explicitly reject the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, and instead advocate continued Israeli control of all lands occupied in 1967.

Other parties likely to join a Netanyahu-led government - Shas and United Torah Judaism - have not expressly opposed negotiations with the Palestinians, but their insistence on continued Israeli control over all of occupied East Jerusalem conflicts with Israel's previous agreement that the status of Jerusalem will be decided through negotiations with the Palestinians.

5. How will U.S. recognition or lack of recognition affect its ability to play a constructive role in brokering Palestinian/Israeli peace?

If the United States fails to recognize and work with the newly established Palestinian unity government, America's ability to play a constructive role in the peace process will be severely hindered. Analysts in Palestine, Israel, and the U.S. argue that as an intrinsic part of the Palestinian political landscape, Hamas must be included in the formulation of any peace agreement between the Palestinians and Israel.

In fact, a recent poll shows that 64 percent of Israelis support direct negotiations between their government and Hamas. And in the U.S., a bipartisan group of nine former senior U.S. officials and one current adviser to President Obama are urging the administration to talk with Hamas. The officials include former national security advisers Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski; economic recovery adviser Paul A. Volcker; former House International Relations Committee chairman Lee Hamilton; former United Nations ambassador Thomas Pickering; former World Bank president James Wolfensohn; former U.S. trade representative Carla Hills; former special counsel to President John F. Kennedy, Theodore Sorensen; and former Republican senators Chuck Hagel and Nancy Kassebaum Baker.

Furthermore, the U.S.' support for the blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has led to a humanitarian disaster, has severely weakened America's global image and ability to play the role of honest broker between Israelis and Palestinians. This will only intensify if the U.S. refuses to recognize a Palestinian unity government and instead freezes the $900 million in aid it pledged to the Palestinian Authority after Israel's devastating military attacks on Gaza.

6. What happened when the Palestinians formed a national unity government in 2007?

Following democratic elections in January 2006 that brought Hamas to power, Israel and the international community implemented crippling sanctions against the Palestinian Authority. The sanctions quickly led to a severe fiscal crisis in the aid-dependent PA. In early 2007, Fatah and Hamas began efforts to form a 'national unity government' with the hopes that this would result in a lifting of the sanctions.

Such a government was formed on March 17, 2007 after eight days of intensive talks between representatives of Fatah and Hamas in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Israel and the international community, however, refused to accept the results of the Mecca Agreement, and failed to lift the sanctions imposed on the Palestinian Authority. When the new national unity government failed to bring an end to the sanctions, tensions between Hamas and Fatah rose - eventually resulting in an outbreak of armed conflict in the Gaza Strip in June 2007 between the two factions.

The nine-day battle - which many have accused Israel and the United States of stoking - resulted in the division of the Palestinian territories into a Hamas stronghold in Gaza and a Fatah stronghold in the West Bank. Israel and the international community subsequently recognized an emergency government declared by Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank and lifted the sanctions on the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, while imposing even harsher restrictions - resulting in a near-total blockade - on the Gaza Strip.

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