Top officials with the ruling Islamist movement Hamas insisted on Tuesday that a new Palestinian unity cabinet will not recognise Israel, a chief condition for resuming Western aid to the government.
"The next government was not asked to recognise Israel and it will not do so," Mussa Abu Marzuk, the second-in-command of Hamas's political wing based in Damascus, told Palestinian press agency Ramattan.
"The question of recognising Israel is an unprecedented one on the international level," he said. "It was not asked from the two Germanys to recognise each other, while the whole world recognised them."
"Why should Palestine, which is not yet a state, recognise Israel?" he said, also citing as examples China and Taiwan.
In Tehran, Hamas's hard-line foreign minister Mahmud Zahar, echoed the sentiment.
"The letter of decree (from president Mahmud Abbas) is going to be the same as before, but the national compromise document is going to be included in it," he said after talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
"This means non-recognition (of Israel). There is no concession," he added.
Hamas, which has controlled the Palestinian government since March, would give up "11 or 12 portfolios" in a unity cabinet which Abbas's secular Fatah party is set to join, Abu Marzuk said.
Tuesday's statements came with Abbas and Hamas apparently progressing towards a deal on the make-up of a unity administration after months of deadlock.
An earlier agreement last September on the political platform of the unity cabinet collapsed after Hamas leaders made a series of statements refusing to recognise Israel or past peace agreements and renounce violence -- as demanded by the West to resume direct aid to the Palestinian government.
The aid was suspended after Hamas -- considered a terrorist organisation by the West -- formed a cabinet in March.
Palestinians hope the aid -- vital to keep the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority afloat -- will resume with the formation of a new unity cabinet.
In Jordan, King Abdullah II said after a meeting with Abbas that a unity cabinet was vital if the Western aid freeze was to be lifted.
"The king underscored the importance of breaking the international embargo imposed on the Palestinian people and expressed his conviction that a new Palestinian government will contribute to that," a court statement said.
Abbas, however, was left denying reports that he had agreed with Hamas that independent academic Mohammed Shbeir would head the new unity cabinet.
"There are no specific names for who will head the (Palestinian) prime ministry but several names, and so far no decision has been made on a specific person," Abbas said after talks with King Abdullah.
Sources in Fatah and Hamas said on Sunday they had agreed on Shbeir, a clinical biologist and former president of the Islamic University, as the next premier.
Shbeir is considered close to Hamas but never joined the party.
In Israel, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter said that Shbeir assuming the premiership will not alone convince the Jewish state to lift economic sanctions imposed after Hamas took power, saying that during his tenure at the Islamic University he headed "a nest of terrorists and assassins."