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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Abbas to quit over stalled peace talks
2009-11-05
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he will not seek re-election in a January ballot because of the lack of progress in peace talks with Israel, Palestinian officials said.
If he follows through on this, he may well be the first PA/PLO high official to walk out of office instead of being carried out in a pine box. On the other hand, one wonders what he sees himself doing afterward, and whether it is connected to high office at the UN or something similar.
Geneva. He could run the UN Commission on Human Rights. Or Vienna, where he could be the next chief of the IAEA.
Mr Abbas will give a speech later Thursday (local time) to explain his decision not to run.

The Western-backed Palestinian leader announced his plans at a meeting of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in the occupied-West Bank.

"The president insists on not running in the upcoming election," an official who attended the meeting said.

But senior Abbas aide Yasser Abed Rabo said the committee's members were still trying to persuade the president to run.

Mr Abbas called the election last month after failing to reach a unity deal with rival Islamist group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.

He has rejected US calls to resume peace negotiations with Israel, saying he was sticking by his demand that Israel first halt all settlement expansion under a 2003 US-backed peace road map.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who met Mr Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, said Palestinians should enter peace talks first and resolve the settlement issue later.

Mr Netanyahu has agreed to limit construction in settlements in the West Bank, territory Israel captured in a 1967 war, rather than a total freeze.

He says Israel must accommodate the "natural growth" in Jewish neighbourhoods.

Another Palestinian official said Mr Abbas made his decision because of the "stagnation in the peace process and the continuation of settlement activities".
Posted by:tipper

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