Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday that he wants to continue peace talks and that the unity government with Hamas will recognize Israel. 

Abbas' comments aimed to quell Western concerns about the Fatah party's unity deal that was reached Wednesday with Hamas, an terrorist Islamist group that is dedicated to Israel's destruction. 

Israel suspended the troubled peace talks after Wednesday's unity deal, and the U.S. said it would reconsider appropriating hundreds of millions of dollars in annual aid given to Palestinians, Reuters reports. 

"The government would be under my command and my policy," Abbas told senior leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). 

"Its purview will be what happens domestically. I recognize Israel and it would recognize Israel. I reject violence and terrorism," he said.

The unity deal proposes a government of independent technocrats within five weeks and the holding of elections six months later. 

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters, "The recognition of Israel by the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, is not new. What is important is that Hamas did not and will never recognize Israel."

Abbas wants a Palestinian state in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are lands that were captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. 

Hamas seized control of Gaza from the secular Fatah party in 2007. Hamas has thousands of fighters and rockets and has battled Israel since they took control of the Gaza Strip. 

A senior U.S. official said Thursday that the unity government will make the U.S. consider retracting their annual $500 million security and budget aid to Abbas. 

The official said that a future Palestinian government must "unambiguously and explicitly commit to non-violence, recognition of the state of Israel and acceptance of previous agreements and obligations between the parties."

On Saturday, Abbas said he is willing to extend the peace talks as long as Israel meets demands to free prisoners and to stop building on Palestinian territory. 

The peace talks, which resumed in July after a three-year deadlock, were already in jeopardy after Israel refused to release a group of Palestinian prisoners and after Abbas signed international treaties in attempts to move Palestine toward statehood. 

Abbas said he wants to extend the talks beyond the original April 29 deadline.