New Delhi, Feb. 12: President Mahmoud Abbas of Palestine is determined not to run for election again, but he wouldn’t speak with the same degree of certainty about the prospects of reconciliation with Hamas or the outcome of the proposed US-mediated talks with Israel.
Speaking in an exclusive interview to this newspaper here on Friday, Mr Abbas said he is waiting for the US to respond to the Palestinians’ "demands" and for the Israeli side to accept the terms of reference for the "proximity" talks, so called because it will involve US special envoy George Mitchell shuttling between Palestinian and Israeli delegations putting up at different locations, either in the same hotel or city.
"They (US) suggested that we have to talk about proximity talks. We have some demands [which] we conveyed to them. We are waiting for them to come back to us with their answer," Mr Abbas said, taking time off from his two-day working visit here in which he met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. One of the Palestinian demands is that there will be a time limit for the talks, which could be a few weeks or a few months at best. Also, the talks can take place only after the Arab world has endorsed it. Mr Abbas said: "We briefed Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa on the talks with the US. When we receive answer, he will call Arab countries and convene a meeting of the follow-up Arab Committee and we will decide then (sic)."
The Palestinian leader, whose tenure expired over a year ago, is hopeful that Hamas will sign on to the Egypt-drafted proposal on Palestinian reconciliation. "If they sign it, we will go direct to the reconciliation and reach to the parliamentary and presidential elections (sic)," he said. In October, Egypt put forward a new document to bridge the differences between President Abbas’ Fatah party and its rival Hamas, which took control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. The proposal calls for early presidential and parliamentary elections, which have been deferred because of the rift.
Mr Abbas ruled out for another term for himself. "Yes, I am determined not to run for election again. It is final," he said.
In the interview, Mr Abbas repeated the Palestinian demand that Israel put a freeze on its settlement activities. "(We) believe that settlements as a whole, in principle, is illegal in our territories. We don’t accept (it.) Our territories, occupied since 1967, all these territories are Palestinian, and we believe that all kinds of settlement activities in our territories, especially in East Jerusalem, are illegal," Mr Abbas noted.
Ramesh Ramachandran