Abbas: `“Time is not in our favor, meetings should be resumed`

Translated by Saed Bannoura

Mahmoud Abbas, Abu Mazen, head of the Executive Committee at the Palestinian Liberation Organization, said that no discussions have been made lately concerning a possible meeting with P.A Chairman Yasser Arafat, and told the press the “meeting with Arafat is not the most important issue, the fundamental issue is the government and its obligations, in order to stop the deterioration of the situation in the Palestinian areas”.

Abbas added that no serious discussions were made concerning joining the meetings of the PLO executive committee, and that he did not demand any preconditions and added that he, as any Palestinian resident, and as an official, wants to see real progress on the ground, and this “could only happen if the current government manages to conduct its role and obligations”.

Concerning the former internal security minister Mohammed Dahlan and what was related to him of latest events in Gaza, Abbas said that Dahlan was a minister and head of the preventive security in Gaza, “Now he is in Gaza, deals with the people and conducts activities, interviews and press releases, recently intensive efforts have been conducted to collapse the gap between him and Arafat, and it practically happened”.

Abbas answering a question concerning whether Dahlan should resume his position and control the security devices, said that this is a private issue which only Dahlan can decide what to do concerning it,

“Dahlan is the only one who can decide, I think issues recently discussed were more general not specific on one point”, Abbas said.

Referring to the Palestinian Legislative Council, Abu Mazen said that it is the only side authorized to discuss issues concerning the government and its work, and that the PLC is authorized to question the government and its conducts, and called upon the PLC members to implement their decisions.

Abu Mazen said that time is passing by, and that time is not in favor of the Palestinians and their interests, “we should always not depend on time, time is passing by now without any progress, we are practically living in the lost time which is affecting us directly and deteriorating the situation in several aspects of the Palestinian society”.

On the other hand, Abu Mazen hinted out that the P.A is internationally isolated, even among the Arab countries,

“The world, including the Arab world, is distancing away from us, we should regain the Arab and International support, we need their support when we resume negotiations with Israel”, Abbas said.

Abu Mazen said that the Arab world is facing lots of problems such as the situation in Iraq, Sudan, and other issues, and that the Palestinian should conduct intensive efforts in order to revive the Palestinian issue and draw Arab and International attention to it.

Nevertheless, Abu Mazen, said that he does not know if there are any preparations for another “Camp David” meeting, and expressed readiness to conduct Palestinian-Israeli meeting at any time,

“Conflict in negotiations is normal, it’s was and still present, but conflict leads to solutions and pushes the peace process forwards, but it should be in accordance with the “Road Map” plan and the Quartet”.