The Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), said Monday he will not use force against armed groups under any circumstances. "There is absolutely no substitute for dialogue," Abbas said at his first news conference since taking office April 30, adding he still believes the armed groups would change their minds. “Palestinian dialogue is essential, since it is the only guarantee to establishing political stability,” he added.
Palestinian fighters have said they will not halt attacks on Israelis, and last week announced they are stopping contacts with the PA on a cease-fire.
The Palestinian Premier stated that while he is not forcing anyone to talk with the PNA, any faction or group that does not engage in dialogue will be held responsible for such a decision. Abbas added: "The suffering of the Palestinians should not be dealt with by incitement. It needs real solutions."
Abbas also defended himself against complaints at home that he has been too conciliatory to Israel, mainly in a speech at a Mideast summit last week, and that Israel has given little in return. Abbas said he has coordinated every move with Yasser Arafat.
Abbas also said he will not back down on the right of return that Palestinians claim, saying, "We will not be able to accept the Israeli reservation" on the issue.
He emphasized that “the issue of detainees is our top priority” and that that his government will exert its utmost of efforts to have more than 5,000 detainees released. The way to ensuring that Palestinian detainees are released, assassinations are halted and settlement-building is frozen is “through negotiations and political efforts”, Abu Mazen conveyed.
Palestinian factions
Following the press conference, Hamas reiterated its opposition to cease-fire negotiations with Abbas. Hamas leaders held talks in the Gaza Strip to discuss the appeal by the Palestinian premier. But Ismail Abu Shanab, a close aide to Shiekh Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas, said: "He has not changed his attitude from Aqaba. Therefore, the situation is unchanged regarding dialogue with Abu Mazen."
Another senior Hamas leader, Dr. Abdel-Aziz Rantissi, said: "We stopped dialogue based on some developments and now there are new developments that need to be studied...Our position now remains as it was until we study them."
On his part, Ahmed Sa’adat, the jailed leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has warned the "road-map" plan was worse than the Oslo agreements as far as the Palestinian people were concerned.
Sa’adat, who is detained in a Palestinian Authority prison in Jericho under American-British supervision, said that the plan was an American manifestation of the vision of the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon.
The road-map plan at its best would return the Palestinian people to the whirlpool of futile negotiations that reached a deadlock after seven years of Oslo, he elaborated.
The PFLP leader told a group of Palestinian journalists that the government of Abu Mazen was designed to carry out security missions at the expense of Palestinian resistance. He said that as long as occupation persisted then the Palestinian resistance would continue.
Sharon
Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon intends to continue with the implementation of the road map following the shooting attacks that killed five Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip and Hebron, Israeli sources were quoted Monday as saying.
According to the sources, there is no plan to delay meetings between Sharon and his Palestinian counterpart, Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), and between Israel's Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan. The sources said that there is also no intention of freezing the plan to remove a number of "unauthorized" settler outposts in the West Bank. The removal is expected to start Monday night.
Sharon told a party convention Sunday night that most of the Israeli people were supportive of his peace efforts and that he bore the full responsibility for the road down which he was taking them. But,he added, by no means would Israel accept the Palestinian demand for the right of return. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
