RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian president said today he does not want to run for another term in January elections, blaming a stalemate in Mideast peace talks on Israel and the United States.
In a televised speech to the Palestinians, Mahmoud Abbas said he has told his “brothers” in the Fatah movement of his “desire not to run in the upcoming elections.”
But Abbas’ careful wording left room for the possibility that he could be persuaded to change his mind, especially if he perceives the United States as backing his position on demanding an end to Israeli construction in West Bank settlements.
Abbas’ decision, reported earlier in the day by his aides, had set off a flurry of calls from regional leaders, with the presidents of Egypt and Israel, the king of Jordan and Israel’s defense minister all urging him change his mind.
Some 500,000 Israeli settlers now live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians say these settlements gobble up large chunks of their hoped-for state, undermining their dream of independence.
Abbas has threatened before not to run for re-election in the Jan. 24 balloting.
Late last month, he told U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that he would not run, but recanted after President Barack Obama called him and expressed his commitment to Mideast peacemaking, Abbas’ aides said.
In the following days, Clinton sought to clarify the American position, first offering warm praise for Israel’s offer to somewhat limit settlement construction in the West Bank, then telling Arab leaders that the U.S. wants to see this construction stopped “forever.”
Abbas’ decision aside, it is not clear that elections will be held at all. Abbas’ West Bank government does not control Gaza, which the Islamic militant group Hamas seized in June 2007. Hamas has said it would not participate in elections.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
