Egypt pressed the Hamas government in the Palestinian territories to recognize past Palestinian agreements with Israel so peace talks can resume between the two sides. It was the most direct appeal on Wednesday from Egypt to Hamas since the Islamists took over the Cabinet last month after winning elections in January. Egypt had previously argued that the world should give Hamas more time to modify its positions, which include refusing to recognize Israel and renounce violence."The Palestinian government must recognize all the agreements (made) with the Palestinian Authority (and Israel) before, so that we can persuade Israel and the Palestinian Authority to sit at the negotiating table," Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said. Recognizing the agreements, which date back to 1993, would implicitly mean accepting a solution based on two states, Israel and Palestine.
| Not honoring the agreements also violates one of the principles of international law, namely that once an agreement is signed off on, it remains binding in the parties regardless of whether the government changes hands, until the treaty's abrogated or expires. Otherwise, all treaties would have to be renegotiated every time there's an election, a coup d'etat, or a regnal death. We hear enough from this or that group complaining about this or that violation of obscure, trivial, or even non-existent points of "international law," but so far I don't hear anyone even pointing out the existence of this one, which is both existent in precedent and basic to international relations. Perhaps Hosni, who's maintaining the peace with Israel that his predecessor signed off on, should explain it to Hamas. |