PRIME MINISTER MAROUF Bakhit on Tuesday said Jordan deferred tackling disputes with Hamas to help Palestinians preserve their unity and avert “civil war”.

“In line with His Majesty’s initiative, Jordan rose above differences with Hamas over the arms smuggling issue and will deal with them at a later stage because serving the just Palestinian cause is a top priority now,” Bakhit told a press conference yesterday.

Jordan accused Hamas of smuggling weapons into the country from Syria, and the State Security Court convicted three Jordanians, all suspected Hamas members, of plotting attacks.

Bakhit reiterated Jordan was willing to host a meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.

On Monday, Bakhit met with Abbas and invited Haniyeh for talks in Amman with the president to help end intra-Palestinian violence.

Haniyeh confirmed that he was invited, but said no date was set for the talks. Ghazi Hamad, a Palestinian government spokesperson, said the prime minister accepted the invitation.

“We pray to God that this step will be a good start to our national unity and putting our Palestinian house in order, to block intervention by [Israel] and the US administration in our internal affairs,” Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, was quoted by Reuters as telling reporters on Tuesday.

Bakhit said it was “essential that the climate first clear up” before the planned talks.

“We leave it to President Abbas to decide how he wants to meet with Prime Minister Haniyeh,” he was quoted as saying.

The rivalry between Hamas and Fateh groups broke out into open street battles in Gaza in recent weeks. Talks between factions over forming a national unity government broke down last month, and Abbas has threatened to call early elections to end the impasse.


Israel approves new West Bank settlement


Meanwhile, Israel approved the building of a new settlement in the northern West Bank to house the former Gaza settlers, officials said Tuesday, breaking a promise to the US to halt settlement construction.

Construction of Maskiot began months ago. But the project only received final approval from the defence ministry last week, said Dubi Tal, head of the Jordan Valley regional council.

The new settlement will house 23 families evacuated from the Gaza Strip last year and will eventually house 100 families, Tal said.

“I estimate that within two or three weeks the foundations for temporary housing will begin,” he said.

Saeb Erekat, an aide to Abbas, condemned the construction and urged the government to revoke its authorisation, saying it violated the new spirit of cooperation inaugurated by a meeting Saturday between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

“What message are they trying to send?” Erekat said.

Olmert has signalled in recent weeks that he is ready to make broad territorial concessions to the Palestinians under a final peace settlement. But he has also said he wants Israel to retain large settlement blocks. The Palestinians claim all of the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, as part of a future independent state.

Under the phased, US-backed “roadmap” peace plan, Israel committed to freeze all settlement expansion, while Palestinians pledged to crack down on fighters. Neither side has followed through.

“The US view on settlements remains unchanged,” said Geoff Anisman, a spokesman for the US embassy in Tel Aviv. “The US continues to urge both sides to meet their roadmap obligations and to avoid taking steps that could be viewed as predetermining the outcome of final status negotiations.” Last weekend’s Olmert-Abbas summit sought to build on momentum from an Israeli ceasefire with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which took effect last month.

Despite the truce, Gaza fighters launched seven homemade rockets into Israel on Tuesday. One hit a street in the town of Sderot after nightfall, seriously wounding two 13-year-old boys, the rescue service and Israel TV reported. Another exploded near the Israeli city of Ashkelon. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for all the attacks.

The fighters have launched about 60 rockets since the truce was declared. Late Tuesday, David Baker, an official in Olmert’s office, said Israel would not hold its fore indefinitely. “We have given the Palestinians every possible chance,” he said.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops shot and seriously injured a Palestinian man near the fence separating Israel and Gaza.

Palestinian officials said the man was a farmer working near the fence in northern Gaza. The army said troops identified two Palestinians sabotaging part of the fence.

When they refused orders to leave and ignored warning shots, the soldiers shot one of them in the legs.

In an effort to push forward with the peace efforts, Olmert and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a key mediator between Israel and the Palestinians, will meet next week in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh, an Israeli government official said.

The official did not say what day the meeting would take place. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting had not been officially announced.

Egypt has played a major role in mediating between Israel and the Palestinians, and has been trying to negotiate the release of an Israeli soldier captured by fighters linked to Hamas.

Meanwhile, Israeli authorities ordered Jewish settlers to evacuate four homes in a heavily guarded enclave in the West Bank city of Hebron, saying the structures were illegally built. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld did not have any information about when the settlers would have to leave.

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