Early Palestinian elections will lead to unrest, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said on Sunday after accusing President Mahmoud Abbas of trying to force his Hamas movement out of all government positions.
Aides to Abbas said on Saturday he planned to call early elections, seeing little point in further talks on a government to replace a Hamas-led coalition boycotted by the West.
Haniyeh, on an official visit to Iran, a major backer of Hamas, said early elections would lead to violence.
"The proposal ... about holding early elections is the start of the creation of disorder in Palestine," Haniyeh said at a news conference with local media.
"We studied that proposal and we believe it to be contrary to the legitimacy of the Palestinian government," Iran's official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.
Haniyeh told Iranian state television late on Saturday that Abbas was to blame for the breakdown in unity government talks.
"Unfortunately, the talks did not succeed because of the hostility and stubbornness of the brothers that are in the Palestinian leadership," he said. "They want the entire state and government to be entirely in the hands of non-Hamas people," he said.