Mahmoud Abbas (again): "... if Israel continues to resist an end to occupation ...I will have to tell our people there is no use for me!..."

Monday, 1 February 2010

Mahmoud Abbas (again): "... if Israel continues to resist an end to occupation ...I will have to tell our people there is no use for me!..."

Friday-Lunch-Club

"From your mouth to the gates of Heaven Mr. Former-Actual-President of the non operational Palestinian Authority!"

In the Guardian/ here

"The Palestinian leader is under pressure, both from his Islamist rival Hamas and inside his own Fatah movement, over concessions to the US and Israel and the perceived inability of his leadership to deliver tangible progress towards Palestinian national goals of an end to Israeli occupation, statehood and the return of Palestinian refugees.
"There will be no return to armed struggle," Abbas said. "It will destroy our territories and our country." Hamas itself, he argued, "is not resisting" – a reference to the organisation's effective ceasefire since January last year – "and now they are talking about peace and a truce with Israel".
But if Israel continued to resist an end to occupation, he would resign and refuse to stand in new elections: "I will have to tell our people there is no hope and no use in my staying in office." Abbas's four years as elected PA president expired a year ago, but last month the PLO extended his term until any new elections are held.
The PA leader defended his security forces' crackdown on Hamas activists in the West Bank, insisting that "we don't want to imprison any political members of Hamas, but only people who provoke the security situation, even from Fatah".
He also denied reports published in the Guardian that the CIA had been working closely with elements of the PA security apparatus involved in arresting and allegedly torturing Hamas supporters. The American role was restricted to the training and rehabilitation of the security forces as part of the wider international effort, he said.....
The Palestinian president also defended Egypt's decision to build an underground wall on the blockaded Gaza strip's southern border to prevent smuggling through tunnels. "I support the wall," Abbas said. "It is the Egyptians' sovereign right in their own country. Legitimate supplies should be brought through the legal crossings."