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Hamas leader hints he'll bow out
GAZA CITY (CNN) -- Hamas leader and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniya suggested Friday that he would not head a proposed unity government if stepping aside would help to bring back Western aid.
Speaking to worshippers gathered for Friday prayers at a Gaza City mosque, Haniya said the West did not want him to be a part of the new administration and would not lift its embargo unless he is replaced as leader.
"[They have] one condition, that the siege will not be lifted unless the prime minister is changed," Haniya said, according to Reuters. "When the issue is like this, the siege on one hand, the prime minister on the another ... I prefer the siege be lifted and the suffering ended."
The loss of direct international aid to the Palestinian government has caused an economic crisis in the West Bank and Gaza. The unity government is seen as a bid to resume the flow of aid, which is the government's main source of funding.
The Quartet of Middle East peace brokers, comprising the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia, has boycotted the Hamas-led government since it came to power in March after elections.
Hamas' surprising success in January parliamentary elections ousted the Fatah Party from power. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party had controlled Palestinian politics for decades.
The Quartet has insisted Hamas recognize the state of Israel, end violence and accept past interim peace deals with Israel. However, Hamas has so far resisted global pressure and calls by Abbas to moderate its stance on Israel.
The European Union, Israel and the U.S. State Department list Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Haniya's comments come two days after talks were put on hold between Hamas and Fatah in the wake of an Israeli tank shelling in the town of Beit Hanoun that killed 18 Palestinians -- mostly women and children. (Full story)
The deaths have been called a massacre by moderate and hard-line Palestinian leaders, and have prompted outrage among Israelis, Palestinians and the international community. (Watch bodies carried through the streets in funeral processions -- 1:49)
Haniya called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to address "continuous aggression" against the Palestinian people. U.N. Security-General Kofi Annan has also condemned the attack on Beit Hanoun.