A Palestinian unity deal will not lead Hamas to recognize Israel's right to exist, a senior Hamas official said on Tuesday.
Veteran Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar told Reuters that his group, which runs the Gaza Strip, was waiting for Abbas to form a unity government, but said the Palestinian leader was taking his time in an effort to overcome U.S. and Israeli opposition.
Hamas unexpectedly agreed with Abbas last week to lay aside old animosities and create a transitional cabinet, paving the way to long-delayed elections across the Palestinian territories.
"Hamas has already decided to take part in the next presidential elections," Hamas political official Khalil al-Hayya said. "All that remains is whether to present our own candidate or to give our support to someone who is already running."
The reconciliation accord angered Israel, which promptly suspended floundering peace talks with Abbas, saying it would not negotiate with any administration backed by Hamas.
Zahar said Abbas only decided to seek unity because the U.S.-driven negotiations were leading nowhere, but predicted that Abbas would take his time trying to assemble a government of technocrats.
"He is trying to overcome a great wave of pressure. We are waiting," said Zahar, adding that Hamas had already handed over lists of names of possible ministers.
Zahar said Abbas was using the unity deal to put heat on Israel, but that Abbas was also worried by a U.S. threat to suspend hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the PA.
"He is seeking a guarantee that U.S. financial support will continue," Zahar said, speaking from his well-guarded house.
Looking to reassure Western allies, Abbas said the new Palestinian government would recognize Israel and honor previous treaties. Zahar dismissed this as a hollow gesture, saying the ministers would be academics with no political authority.
"Abbas is not telling them the truth. He says, 'This is my government.' But it is not his government. It is a government of national unity. He is marketing it in this way to minimize the pressure," said Zahar, who took part in the unity negotiations.
Hamas leaders have said in the past that the movement could live peacefully alongside Israel if the Palestinians get a state on all Palestinian land taken over by Israel in 1967, although the 1988 Hamas founding charter calls for the destruction of Israel and for recovering all of Mandate Palestine. The group continues to say that it will not recognize Israel officially.
The Palestinian unity pact follows a trail of previous, failed efforts to overcome the deep Palestinian political schism. Agreed to in just a few hours, the deal sidestepped one of the most sensitive issues -- who would be in charge of security.
Hamas' armed wing has some 20,000 men in its ranks. Abbas has his own, Western-trained forces, who often cooperate with Israeli troops and police in the West Bank -- a practice that Zahar called "shameful."
Zahar said Hamas would remain in charge of its own troops regardless of the latest deal and irrespective of who wins national elections, which are slated for later this year.
"Nobody will touch the security sections in Gaza. No one will be able to touch one person from the military group. Nobody asked for that," he said.
Hamas won the last legislative elections held in the Palestinian territories in 2006, and then seized control of Gaza after ousting forces loyal to Abbas a year later.
It appeared to be on the rise when fellow Islamists were elected to office in neighboring Egypt, but its fortunes crumpled following last year's military coup in Cairo, with the new army-backed rulers launching a fierce crackdown on Hamas. Hundreds of smuggling tunnels connecting Gaza to Egypt were destroyed.
Zahar said divisions in Egypt were a "catastrophe" for the region. He also acknowledged that Hamas' once-deep ties with Iran had not fully recovered after Hamas had refused to back Syrian President Bashar Assad in the going civil war in Syria.
"We have good relations [with Iran], but you know the impact of the Syrian problem is still a factor. ... The communication is not as it was," Zahar said, declining to give details of Iranian funding for Hamas.
Some political analysts said Hamas' international problems had spurred it toward reconciliation with Abbas. But Zahar said Abbas, whose mandate expired five years ago, had made the overture because peace talks with Israel were at a dead end.
"He is very weak," said Zahar.
Hamas has regularly clashed with Israel, fighting two major conflicts in 2008-2009 and again in 2012. The last confrontation ended in a truce that resulted in months of relative quiet.
Sporadic rocket fire out of Gaza and into Israel picked up at the start of the year, amid mutual recriminations over who was to blame for the truce deal fraying.
However, Zahar said not all the missile attacks were sanctioned by Hamas, accusing some small groups of actively seeking to destabilize Gaza -- including last week at the time the unity deal with Abbas was being concluded.
"Why, when we signed the agreement, did 20 dancing rockets go to Israel? It was not Hamas. ... It was not done for Palestinian reasons. It was against Palestinian interests. Palestinian interests are to have this unity agreement," he said.
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