Hamas Reverses Position

Friday, June 6, 2003
(23:14 GMT) ( 7:14 AM HKT)
By Kelly Wallace
The Cable News Network

"I think they should try the cease-fire option and go through the 'road map' in a correct way – and if it doesn't succeed, they can go back to violence," said a Palestinian woman in Gaza, who has not seen her daughter in nearby Jerusalem since the uprising began 32 months ago. But not everyone in Gaza agrees.

JERUSALEM -- CNN
Hamas, the militant Palestinian group responsible for many suicide bombings against Israelis, threw down the gauntlet Friday, saying it was cutting off cease-fire talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, accusing Abbas of selling out to Israel this week at a peace summit in Aqaba, Jordan.

"He gave the Jews what they did not deserve," Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas' spiritual leader, said Friday, as Hamas organized rallies throughout Gaza to try and send a message to Abbas.

The move represents a surprise reversal because immediately after the U.S.-Israeli-Palestinian summit, Hamas leaders said they were still willing to talk with the prime minister about a possible halt in attacks against Israelis, even as the group's leaders rejected Abbas' call for an end to the armed intifada against Israel.

"We must sit down and discuss the cease-fire," Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas spokesman, told CNN Wednesday. "We are talking and discussing the cease-fire."

Thursday, Hamas sources said the group's leaders might sit down with Abbas as early as Friday afternoon.

What changed? Two events appear to be key, according to Palestinian sources.
(More: CNN.com)
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Dan