almotamar.net google - Sunday, March 18, 2007 (Washington):The Bush administration found little good to say about a Palestinian coalition government that falls short of Western demands and complicates US plans to revive long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said part of the platform announced yesterday is disturbing, and he called Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's introductory speech disappointing.

Islamic Hamas militants will govern alongside a secular, Western-backed Palestinian president whose standing seemed to be weakened by terms of the government announced yesterday.

The terms do not fully satisfy requirements imposed by international donors and would-be peacemakers that Palestinian leaders renounce violence, accept Israel's right to exist and abide by previous agreements the Palestinians made with Israel and others.

The blended government is a marriage of convenience meant to end a Western aid boycott in place since shortly after the militants won a surprise victory in legislative elections last year.

But although its platform and makeup are more moderate than the hardline Hamas would draw on its own, it contains an implicit endorsement of terrorism.

"The reference to 'right of resistance' is disturbing and contradicts directly the quartet principle of renunciation of violence," McCormack said, referring to the international peacemaking coalition of the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia.

A rollout speech that Haniyeh delivered to the Palestinian Legislative Council "was disappointing and inconsistent with the quartet principles, as well as a missed opportunity" to affirm the new government's commitment to peace, McCormack said.