RAMALLAH, January 14, 2006 - President Mahmoud Abbas stressed Saturday his rejection to any foreign interference in the forthcoming legislative elections on 25 January.
Interviewed by Aljazeera TV, President Abbas said the elections and forming
a government following holding the elections is a sheer Palestinian affair,
expressing his rejection of the American threats to stop its financial aids
to the Palestinian National Authority if Hamas participates in the upcoming
government.
He said that Hamas participation should be based on clear and new political
basis according to Oslo accords, stressing that legislative elections would
be held as scheduled on 25 January if Israel did not prevent the vote in
East Jerusalem.
'We are determined to hold those elections on 25 January, unless we do not
obtain our complete rights, in line with the Oslo accords and the elections
of 1996,' he warned.
President Abbas revealed that the PNA has been in contact with the US
Administration and the Quartet to solve the problem of the Jerusalemites and
prisoners' participation in the elections.
'We want to assert our right over (East) Jerusalem through the elections
because it is part of the (future) Palestinian state,' said Abbas.
Abbas complained that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, its
continued military attacks and countless roadblocks were a hindrance to the
free movement of voters during the electoral process.
He articulated that late President Yasser Arafat and he are of the same
school, 'I sponsored the Oslo Accords and President Arafat accepted it but
they viewed he did not want peace, it is the Israelis who put obstacles and
create pretexts'.