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November 23, 2008

Abbas May Call for Palestinian Elections
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says if the dialogue does not
succeed, he will call for elections early next year 
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he may call early parliamentary
and presidential elections if a reconciliation deal is not reached
between his Fatah faction and its rival, Hamas. Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas (File)Mr. Abbas says if the dialogue does not succeed, he
will call for elections early next year. The Palestinian leader made the
comments to a meeting of his Palestine Liberation Organization Sunday in
Ramallah. On Saturday, Mr. Abbas urged U.S. President-elect Barack Obama
to support an Arab peace plan that offers Israel recognition in exchange
for a withdrawal from occupied lands. The Arab peace initiative was
first proposed in 2002 by dozens of Arab countries who do not have ties
to Israel. Egypt and Jordan are currently the only countries that
recognize Israel. Mr. Abbas said under the plan, Israel would live in a
"sea of peace" with the Arab world, instead of in an "island of peace."
He made the remarks Saturday during a conference in the West Bank city
of Nablus. The Palestinian leader's party recently ran Hebrew-language
ads in Israeli newspapers to promote the peace proposal. Israeli Foreign
Minister Tzipi Livni has welcomed the plan as a positive gesture, but
says changes are needed on the status of Jerusalem and the fate of
Palestinian refugees. In another development, Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov said members of the international Middle East quartet
(which consists of the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the
European Union) may meet to discuss the peace process before the year's
end. He made the comments Saturday after meeting with U.S. Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.


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