Hamas responsible for reconciliation

Riyad al-Maliki  Ramallah – Sona al-Deak    The Palestinian foreign minister in Ramallah, Riyad al-Maliki, stressed that his government will resume its diplomatic activity regarding the issue of Jerusalem, while stating Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu's comments of Jerusalem being the "heart of Israel" was "a challenge to the whole world, particularly the Palestinians and Arabs". "We accept this challenge, even if we don't have enough support. Unfortunately, the international, Arab and Islamic aid is below expectations. The Arab countries vowed to offer donations of $500 million to the al-Aqsa fund in the Arab summit in Sirte, but only around $37 million has been transferred since then. Additionally there were 57 Islamic members in the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), who launched a campaign to gather $1 annually from every Muslim around world to donate to the people of Jerusalem, however nothing was actually sent to us," al-Maliki said. Al-Maliki said that Netanyahu's government has benefited from the ongoing global crises to expand settlement activity in both Jerusalem and the West Bank. "Israel had separated Jerusalem into two cities, Arab and Jewish. The Arab role is almost absent, as the Arab League expected international donor conferences to support the Palestinian people of Jerusalem. However this has been delayed more than once, and even when it was held, it only came out with some recommendations and no practical steps were mentioned. In this regard I think that president Abbas' call for the Arabs to visit Jerusalem is a very courageous one, as this step will create stronger ties between Arabs, Muslims and the city of Jerusalem," the Palestinian foreign minister added. On recent developments regarding the national reconciliation issue, al-Maliki criticised Gaza-based Hamas, saying it bears full responsibility for delaying Palestinian reconciliation. He added that Hamas was forced to sign the Cairo agreement recently, saying: "Hamas thought that president Abbas will not be able to form a new government unless he reaches an agreement with it. However Abbas's decision of forming a new government and preparing for legislative elections in the Palestinian territories except for Gaza,  has forced Hamas to sign the agreement which has not been agreed to by all Palestinians." Al-Maliki added: "According to the agreement the new government is supposed to be confirmed within 10 days. However I highly doubt that Hamas will commit to what was agreed, so we must be careful and wait and see." Regarding the request to have the United Nations recognise a Palestinian state, al-Maliki said: "This has been moved to the UN Security Council, which has given 22 responses to our demands; 18 are positive, four are negative, and all are related to Hamas, particularly the shelling operations in Gaza. This is why we have accelerated the reconciliation agreement, in order to get rid of all the negative issues that may hinder the recognition of an independent Palestinian state. We have secured eight votes among the Security Council, so we only need a ninth vote to achieve recognition. However we failed to convince Bosnia and Herzegovina and Guatemala, due to Israeli and US influences on both nations' leaders". On Denmark's stance to boycott Israeli settlement products, al-Maliki said: "Denmark heads the European Union for the first half of this year and Denmark's prime minister strongly backs Palestine. We have discussed with him the issues concerning boycotting Israeli settlement products and banning them from entering Europe. This proposal will be raised in the Danish parliament next week, and we hope it will be raised with the European Parliament as well".