The favourite to win the Palestinian presidential election, Mahmoud Abbas, expressed hope on Thursday that peace negotiations with Israel could resume soon after the winner is declared on Monday.
Abbas, a moderate who is about 40% ahead in the race to succeed Yasser Arafat, said he sees Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a potential peace partner. Earlier this week, Abbas irritated the prime minister by referring to Israel as ”the Zionist enemy”.
The emollient words, which were welcomed by Israel, came as Abbas and the other six candidates toured the West Bank and Gaza campaigning for Sunday’s election, the first for a Palestinian leader since Mr Arafat was elected in 1996.
Speaking at a press conference in Nablus — a volatile city in the West Bank that suffered badly from an Israeli invasion ordered by Sharon two years ago — Abbas said: ”After the elections, we will start negotiations. Ariel Sharon is an elected leader and we will negotiate with him.
”We will put the road map [the peace agreement drawn up by the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia] on the table and say that we are ready to implement it completely.”
Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians are unlikely to take place until Sharon completes his withdrawal of soldiers and Jewish settlers from Gaza in the summer.
Palestinians attending rallies on Thursday, though enjoying the novelty of the election, were pessimistic about peace and were divided about whether Palestinian militants should cease operations against Israel.
Abbas has been trying to secure a ceasefire agreement from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but the two militant groups — both of which are boycotting the election — have stepped up rocket and mortar attacks on Israel over the past week. They claim they are responding to Israeli attacks.
On Thursday night, Abbas called off a campaign appearance in east Jerusalem because of the possibility of being seen surrounded by Israeli troops.
While polls indicate that Abbas will win between 60% and 65% of the vote, he needs a big turnout to secure the kind of mandate that will help him face down Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The same polls put Mustafa Barghouti, an academic and human rights campaigner, in second place, on about 20%.
Barghouti said on Thursday that his rival represents the continuation of the old system, whereas he vows to clean up democratic institutions, the judicial system and the economy.
He described the call for militants to stop their attacks as ”a mistake” by Abbas.
”To expect there to be a complete ceasefire while the other side [Israel] keeps shooting is unrealistic,” he said.
Blair’s warning
British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned the Palestinian leadership on Thursday that it must accept the need for a London conference to sort out its internal problems ”as an insurance against the suicide bomber or terrorist who wants to wreck the process”.
Blair said he ”deeply sympathises” with the Palestinian plight but ”the Palestinians have had enough sympathy: it is not sympathy they need, it’s people to act”.
He focused on the need for the Palestinian leadership to control internal security so that final status talks with Israel would not be derailed by a deliberate act of terrorism.
Stressing that he retains ”absolutely no doubt” about US President George Bush’s commitment to the process, he said ”the viable Palestinian state we want to see is viable not just in terms of territory but in terms of its political institutions, its economy and its security measures”.
He added: ”If Europe is going to put in money, we need to know that money is properly used”. — Guardian Unlimited Â