Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will live up to his ultimatum to Hamas and will call a referendum on the plan to negotiate a two-state solution to the conflict with Israel. Hamas rejected Abbas' ultimatum, so he is going ahead unilaterally.
Talks on the proposal ended without agreement late Monday night, and early Tuesday morning Mr. Abbas's office said in a statement that he intended to live up to his ultimatum to Hamas, the militant Islamic faction that heads the government, and announce a referendum later on Tuesday after meeting with the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
"In light of recent contacts, President Abbas will decide the date of the referendum after a meeting of the P.L.O. executive committee," the statement said.
The referendum is expected to be called for July and will be seen as a vote of confidence in Hamas, which won legislative elections in late January but has been isolated internationally and financially because of its refusal to recognize the right of Israel to exist, to forswear violence and to accept previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements.
The vote, if it takes place, will be a kind of showdown between Hamas and Mr. Abbas, who has insisted from the beginning of Hamas's rule that it accept the idea of a negotiated two-state solution, with an independent Palestine living in peace alongside Israel.
There is no precedent for a referendum among the Palestinians, and it is not clear that Mr. Abbas has the power to call one. Nor is it clear what would happen if the Palestinian parliament, where Hamas holds a majority, votes against a referendum or decides on wording different from that which Mr. Abbas might favor.
Hamas has rejected portions of the prisoners' document, which implicitly recognizes Israel by calling for a Palestinian state within the boundaries that existed before the 1967 Middle East war.
Khalida Jarar, a delegate from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, told reporters after factions held talks with Mr. Abbas in Ramallah late on Monday that Mr. Abbas felt he had no option but to call the referendum.
Ms. Jarar said Mr. Abbas also had a 70-minute phone conversation with Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, of Hamas, about the proposal, which she said also ended without agreement.
The proposal is believed to be heavily favored by the Palestinian people.
