RAMALLAH, West Bank — A senior Hamas official said Friday the group is ready to accept a "two-state" solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but the Hamas prime minister said he is unaware of plans by the Islamic militants to change their hard-line government platform.
The senior Hamas official said the two-state idea was to be raised by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in a meeting Friday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a moderate who advocates negotiations with Israel. The two met Friday but it was unknown if they actually discussed the idea.
The meeting was preceded by a series of contradictory statements from Hamas officials about whether a new government would recognize Israel in some fashion.
A "two-state" solution would appear to be a softening of Hamas' position and imply recognition of the Jewish state.
Haniyeh later told reporters that he would discuss a wide range of issues with Abbas, but that "there is nothing new about political positions" outlined in the Hamas government platform.
"Haniyeh is to tell Abu Mazen (Abbas) tonight that Hamas is able to adopt the two-state solution as a platform of the Cabinet. But we know Israel doesn't accept us. We want to give room for movement and to lift international pressure on the Cabinet," the senior official said.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the proposal has not yet been submitted to Abbas.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev dismissed the proposal as "verbal gymnastics."
When asked about the two-state idea, Ghazi Hamad, the spokesman of the Hamas government, said he believed Haniyeh and Abbas could reach common ground. "This will come soon," Hamad said.
In a published interview Friday, Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar also confirmed Hamas' willingness to discuss a solution that would implicitly recognize Israel.
He said his government is prepared to discuss the idea with the Quartet of international Mideast negotiators — the U.S., the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.
"Let us speak about what is the meaning of the two-state solution," he told The Times of London. "We will ask them what is their concept concerning the two-state solution."
Only a day earlier, Haniyeh had told The Associated Press that Hamas would not recognize Israel.
The contradictory statements came as Hamas is under intense international pressure to moderate its views, including recognizing Israel, renouncing violence and accepting existing peace agreements. In Brussels, Belgium, the EU announced Friday it would cut off direct aid payments to the Hamas-led government.
The idea of accepting a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an apparent attempt by Hamas to appease the international community, without having to state directly that it is recognizing Israel.
Haniyeh and others in Hamas criticized the decision as collective punishment of the Palestinians.
Israel also has suspended the monthly transfer of about $55 million in customs duties it collects for the Palestinians. Haniyeh said this week that his government is broke.
Hamas officials have said they would only grant such recognition in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from all lands Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast War — the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.
In exchange for backing a two-state solution, Hamas wants Abbas to grant the group its "constitutional rights," the senior Hamas official said. Abbas has taken steps recently to curb Hamas' power in security matters. On Thursday, Abbas named a longtime ally to supervise the security forces that are supposed to be under the authority of the Hamas Cabinet.
Regev, the Israeli official, said: "I see no indication that Hamas is moving to accept the international community's benchmarks. They have no one but themselves to blame for this situation."
Hamas has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and been labeled a terrorist group by the U.S. and Europe.
In new violence, Israeli troops killed a 22-year-old Palestinian in an overnight arrest raid in the West Bank city of Nablus. The army said troops shot the man after coming under fire, but the man's family said he was unarmed and had no ties to any militant group.
In the northern Gaza Strip, Israeli military aircraft dropped leaflets urging civilians to stay away from rocket-launching sites "for your own safety."
The warning, signaling further military activity is imminent, was issued shortly after Israeli aircraft carried out airstrikes in Gaza in response to three rocket attacks from Gaza.
Israel has stepped up its attacks against suspected rocket-launching sites recently, with naval ships striking open fields Friday. No casualties were reported.
On Thursday, Haniyeh said he rejected any attempts to take power away from Hamas, which won Jan. 25 parliamentary elections. His Cabinet was sworn in last week.
"There are attempts to create parallel frameworks to some ministries in the Palestinian government," Haniyeh said in the interview with AP. "But I don't think (Abbas) can keep up this pressure and take away power from this government."
Haniyeh said Abbas had assured him the security forces would remain under the control of the Hamas-led Cabinet.
But hours later, Abbas appointed a longtime ally, Rashid Abu Shbak, to head the three security services that fall under new Interior Minister Said Siyam, in addition to agencies already under the president's aegis. Though Siyam would technically be Abu Shbak's boss, any dispute between the two would be resolved in the Abbas-headed National Security Council.
Abu Shbak said he was authorized to hire and fire officers in the three security branches. "Any recruitment of directors of deputy directors for any of the three services will be made through me," he said. His appointment reduced Hamas' authority over the security apparatus to cutting checks for its 58,000 officers.
Abbas has said he wants to resume peace talks with Israel, which has shunned the Hamas government, and Haniyeh said he would not stand in the way of those talks.
Abbas, "as the head of the Palestinian Authority and the PLO, can move on political fronts and negotiate with whomever he wants. What is important is what will be offered to the Palestinian people," Haniyeh said.
When asked if he was a pragmatic man and would recognize Israel, he switched to English: "That is a big question."
He then said there was no change in Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence and respect all past accords signed by the Palestinian Authority — the three conditions Israel and the West have imposed for dealing with Hamas.