AL QUDS, March 24: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose peacemaking policies were rejected by Hamas after it won elections, said he proposed secret peace talks with Israel and believed a deal could still be reached within a year.
In an interview with Israel’s Haaretz newspaper published on Friday, Abbas said he proposed opening “a back channel of talks” to American officials and former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres, who has spearheaded peace efforts in the past.
Hamas’s shock election victory appeared to torpedo any hopes of resuming negotiations to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but Abbas said: “I am convinced that within less than a year, we will be able to sign an agreement.”
Israel responded on Friday by casting doubt on Abbas’s ability to lead any negotiations.
“Real political power in the Palestinian Authority is no longer in the hands of Mr Abbas and his colleagues, but has been transferred to Hamas,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev. “The question that has to be asked is, Does Mr Abbas have the ability to deliver?”
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has publicly called Abbas irrelevant, and the Jewish state has vowed not to deal with Hamas, which has rebuffed calls to renounce violence, recognise Israel and abide by interim peace deals.
Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whose centrist Kadima party is expected to win a March 28 general election, is threatening to bypass Abbas with unilateral moves to consolidate settlements and draw a final border with the Palestinians.
If an agreement is reached, Abbas said he would be the one to sign it. Abbas said he would be prepared to put any peace agreement to a referendum, adding that he was “certain” a majority of Palestinians would support it at the polls.
But Abbas told Haaretz that he feared Israel was not interested in negotiations and was avoiding them under the pretext of having no Palestinian partner after Hamas’s victory.
Olmert has proposed unilaterally dismantling isolated Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank while strengthening bigger enclaves. Abbas said doing so might bring about a 10-year ceasefire, “but it will not bring you peace.”—Reuters
