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turkish fm davutoglu: ă¬abbasă decision is a threat to middle east peaceă® |
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Sunday, 8 November 2009Announcing that Palestinian elections will be held on January 24, the rift between the Palestinian factions, Al-Fatah and Hamas had surfaced once more. Hamas had declared that it would not allow elections to take place in Gaza, punish anyone participating in elections. The Palestinian leadership has shaken once more with AbbasĂ decision not to run for Presidency in the upcoming Palestinian elections. Mahmoud Abbas said that he has Ă«no desireĂ to run for presidency in the coming elections. The decision has led to fears on the part of the U.S. and Israel while principally Hamas has claimed that Abbas is bluffing to get the U.S. put more pressure on Israel to halt the settlements and stop changing the demographic nature in East Jerusalem, planned to be the capital of a future of Palestinian state. Hamas has also been sceptical of AbbasĂs real intentions behind his speech as they think that AbbasĂs speech was also directed at the international community and the U.S. to get their support behind him in the approaching elections.
The Obama Administration has set it its aim to solve the Palestinian Israeli conflict and appointed George Mitchell as his special envoy to the conflict to rekindle the Middle East peace process. Yet, it has failed in this goal so far. Mahmoud Abbas had expressed his lack of hope to reach a solution with Netanyahu as Israeli Prime Minister. Abbas said that "But I don't see it [change in Netanyahu]. I fear it's the same Netanyahu of 1996. How much longer can I still give him credit?" Abbas expressed his disappointment with the U.S. over its unwillingness to exert more pressure on Israel and make a total settlement halt a precondition to resume the negotiations. State Secretary Hillary Clinton said in his tour in the Middle East that Israel has made ìunprecedented concessionsî on settlement construction for the sake of reviving peace talks but she had to back off in the face severe criticism from the Arab world and the Palestinians. The moratorium on settlements Netanyahu government had announced has several reservations and Netanyahu rejected making an absolute settlement halt a precondition to resuming talks.
Mahmoud AbbasĂs decision has caused alarms in Israel and the U.S. because support for Hamas had already been on the rise thanks to PAĂs decision to postpone motion on the Goldstone report at the UN ostensibly under the U.S. pressure. HamasĂs successful exchange of Gilad SchalitĂs video in return for the release of 19 Palestinian prisoners, of which only 1 was from Hamas contrasted with PAĂs decision to postpone the motion and contributed ti HamasĂ risin standing. In the absence of Ă«moderateĂ Mahmoud Abbas, it is feared that, only Marvan Barghouti, who is in an Israeli prison since 2002 has the support of the Fatah constituency and Hamas might be even stronger in the case of a strong leadership in Fatah. Marwan Barghouti has the backing from the Ă«Palestinian streetĂ but his refusal to be tried by an Israeli court and harsh stance do not make him a Ă«moderateĂ Palestinian leader to be negotiated with by Israel first and foremost.
Upon AbbasĂ decision not to run for elections, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner desribed his decision as a "threat to peace" in the Middle East. Turkey has long supportted a strong unity government in Palestine to negotiate more forcefully with Israel. Turkish foreign Minister had also said that without peace in Palestine a comprehensive peace in the Middle East is not possible. AbbasĂ decision has ben identified as a threat to peace in the Middle East by the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu. He also expressed his hope in his visit to Paris that Abbas will change his decision.
By Omer Aslan (JTW)
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Sunday, 8 November 2009
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