GAZA CITY (AFP) — Hamas said on Monday that the Palestinians would not be bound by any decisions taken at a key US-hosted Middle East peace meeting that has further isolated the Islamists in their Gaza stronghold.
"The decisions taken at Annapolis are not binding on the Palestinian people, who have not authorised anyone, either Arab or Palestinian, to erase their rights," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP.
The statement came a day before US President George W. Bush convenes the peace conference in Annapolis outside Washington with the aim of jumpstarting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process seven years after it ground to a halt at Camp David.
Barhum's comments underscored the internal Palestinian divisions that loom over efforts to revive the moribund peace process and the difficulties faced by moderate president Mahmud Abbas as he aims to embark on final status talks with the Israelis.
Palestinian negotiator Yasser Abed Rabbo said in Washington on Monday that final status talks would begin on Wednesday.
The Islamist Hamas has ruled over the Gaza Strip -- the smaller half of the Palestinians' promised future state -- since mid-June when it routed forces loyal to Abbas. It opposes his efforts to restart talks with Israel.
Hamas, which routed Abbas's long-dominant Fatah party in January 2006 parliamentary polls, argues that without its accord the president lacks the mandate to negotiate on behalf of all Palestinians.
Blacklisted by both the European Union and the United States as a terror group and not invited to the US meeting, Hamas on Monday convened a "counter-conference," warning against making concessions to Israel and reiterating its long-held tenets.
"We reject all solutions that abolish our rights," Hamas hardliner Mahmud Zahar told dozens of members of Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group.
"The land of Palestine extends from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, the Syrian and Lebanese borders in the north and the Egyptian border in the south," he said, referring to British-mandate Palestine, much of which is modern-day Israel.
Zahar also reaffirmed "the right for refugees to return to their homes everywhere in Palestine," calling it "a holy right that cannot be renounced" and warning that "all those who make concessions on this will be traitors."
Increasingly isolated by Israel and the West after it seized control of Gaza, Hamas suffered a further blow last week when Arab countries -- including powerhouse Saudi Arabia -- voted to attend the US meeting despite its appeals for a boycott.
Faced with this setback, Hamas urged Arab nations not to normalise relations with or make concessions to Israel during the US gathering.
The government of Abbas, who has refused to hold talks with Hamas until it relinquishes power in Gaza, has banned the holding of rallies or other gatherings against the US meeting, information minister Riyad al-Malki said.
He said the cabinet took the decision because "we look forward to the Annapolis meeting being successful."
The Islamists, who have not renounced violence or recognised Israel, have vowed to step up attacks on Israeli targets in Gaza and the occupied West Bank after the Annapolis meeting.
Amid such warnings, Israeli police have been placed on high alert from Sunday to Wednesday.
In northern Gaza, Israeli fire killed three Palestinian militants in two separate incidents on Monday near the border with Israel, medics and the army said.
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