Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday vowed there would be no civil war in the Palestinian territories despite an upsurge in internal violence. "Palestinian blood remains prohibited. We are not going to allow us to be dragged into a civil war," Abbas said in a speech broadcast live on Palestine TV.
Abbas stated he wanted a government that was capable of lifting crippling Western sanctions. "Do I need a government for entertainment? I need a government that can lift the siege," Abbas said.
He also called for a political solution to resolve a Palestinian crisis but made clear he had the right to sack the Hamas government. "The crisis is getting worse ... Without a political agreement, security will remain disturbed," Abbas said. Abbas added that he had the authority to dismiss the government. "This is a constitutional right. I can do it whenever I want," Abbas said.
Abbas called for fresh parliamentary and presidential elections at the earliest opportunity. But also Abbas added said that in the interim period all efforts should be made to form a unity government made up of technocrats. He said let us go back to the people, who are the reference of legislations. " Let us ask the people if they approve the National Documentation of the pure and respected prisoners."
Earlier, the Hamas-led cabinet said Friday it would boycott Abbas' speech to protest the "disastrous and bloody" events of recent days.
After the speech, Hamas has flatly rejected Abbas' call for early elections. The acting PLC speaker, Dr. Ahmed Bahar, a prominent Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, stressed that Abbas' call was legally null and void.
Dr. Bahar revealed that he had sent a legal memo to Abbas on the PLO executive committee's decision recommending early general elections, which meant dissolving the PLC, saying that Abbas could not embark on such a step according to the PA bylaw.
He told Al-Jazeera TV network that Abbas himself had previously declared that he could not dissolve the parliament because it did not fell within his jurisdictions.
For his part, Osama Hamdan, the Hamas Movement's representative in Lebanon, also told the Qatar-based network that Abbas' address contained what American secretary of state Condoleezza Rice had dictated on him. He ridiculed the fact that the executive committee that recommended the elections was not itself elected but rather appointed by the PLO chairman.
