Netanyahu : No negotiations if Hamas join government

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he will not negotiate with any Palestinian government that includes Hamas. "If Hamas joins the Palestinian government we will not hold negotiations with the Palestinian Authority," Israeli daily Haaretz quoted Netanyahu as saying during a conference of Israeli ambassadors. The Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, in the same meeting said that Israel will not return to 1967 borders and that Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law, are not an obstacle to peace. The rival Hamas and Fatah factions took a significant step towards reconciliation on Thursday as the Islamist group said it planned to join President Mahmoud Abbas's Palestine Liberation Organization. One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Hamas's Mashaal had told Abbas that his group was "in favor of peaceful resistance and a truce in Gaza and the West Bank at this stage". Palestinian factions have been locked in talks in the Egyptian capital over the past week. Fatah and Hamas leaders had met last on Dec. 18 and other political parties joined the Egypt-brokered talks on Tuesday. Last month PLO official Saeb Erekat said that the PA is willing to discuss all final status issues "once Israel proves its seriousness and commitment by freezing all its illegal settlement construction in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, especially in occupied East Jerusalem." “Such a meeting is contingent upon halting settlement activities completely. It isn’t a meeting for public relations," Presidential adviser Nimir Hammad told Ma’an in December after Netanyahu had said he was willing to meet with Abbas at any time. Palestinian leaders say that they have little to show for over 20 years of negotiations and that Israeli settlements are annexing land which is meant to form part of their future state. Israel has occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem since 1967.