Abbas Says Close to Calling New Polls

Abbas Looking over maps of Jerusalem

by Mohammed Mar’i & Hisham Abu Taha

RAMALLAH/GAZA CITY, 26 July 2007 — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday that he was close to calling new legislative and presidential elections.

Abbas said last week that he wanted to hold a new vote following Hamas’ violent takeover of the Gaza Strip. Hamas has said it will boycott new elections.

In a speech to a visiting US delegation yesterday, Abbas said he would soon order the elections.

“The time has come for us to issue the required decrees for early elections,” he said. Abbas did not say when he would issue the decrees or give a date for the vote. Abbas’ aides have said they expect elections by early 2008.

Calling for the elections is sure to deepen the rift with Hamas. Abbas said Gaza would be included in the elections, underlining his claim to be the legitimate authority of all Palestinians.

“We will not exclude Gaza. Gaza is part of the Palestinian land,” he said. However, it remains unclear how he could carry out a vote in the Hamas-controlled territory, home to about one-third of the Palestinian population.

Since the Gaza takeover, Abbas has formed a pro-Western emergency government based in the West Bank, while Gaza has slid into deep international isolation.

At yesterday’s event, the United States announced a program providing $228 million in loans to Palestinian businesses. Funding will come from a variety of sources, including the US, Norway, the state-run Palestine Investment Fund and the nonprofit Aspen Institute.

US Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes said the program was part of the US plan to support Abbas and “lay the foundations for a successful Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.”

She said most of the loans, ranging from $10,000 to $500,000 would go to family-owned businesses ranging from olive growers to computer start-ups to embroidery operations.

“President Bush knows, and the American people know, that in our quest for peace, it is absolutely crucial to improve the living conditions and the economic opportunities of the Palestinian people,” she said.

Palestinian officials have said Abbas wants to hold elections before Israel releases dozens of Hamas legislators it has arrested, pre-empting the possibility that they could return to Parliament and vote out the caretaker government. Israel is unlikely to release the legislators until Hamas frees an Israeli soldier captured last summer.

Abbas said outside mediators have offered to broker reconciliation talks with Hamas. He said there would be no dialogue with the Islamic group until it reverses its Gaza takeover. “I will not listen to anyone,” he said.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said yesterday he has discussed steps toward establishing a Palestinian state with Abbas.

“We have started very seriously to talk with Mr. Abbas on a peace process and questions which can allow a Palestinian state to be established,” he said following a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres.

“These discussions will continue at the pace we have agreed upon, and we are in agreement for them to continue until they bear concrete results,” he said.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported earlier that Olmert was offering to hold negotiations to agree principles to establish a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital before more sensitive diplomatic issues are tackled.