Abbas sees end of war with Israel
By Steven Erlanger The New York Times Monday, February 14, 2005
GAZA CITY The Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, said in an interview that the war with the Israelis was effectively over and that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was speaking "a different language" to the Palestinians.
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Sharon's commitment to withdraw from Gaza and dismantle all Israeli settlements there and four in the West Bank, despite "how much pressure is on him from the Israeli Likud rightists," Abbas said, "is a good sign to start with" on the road to real peace. "And now he has a partner."
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In a 40-minute interview in his Gaza office late Saturday night, Abbas spoke with pride about persuading the radical groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad to respect the mutual declaration of truce that he and Sharon announced Tuesday at their first summit meeting in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt.
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Abbas said that the war with the Israelis would be over "when the Israelis declare that they will comply with the agreement I made in Sharm el Sheik, and today our comrades in Hamas and Jihad said they are committed to the truce, the cooling down of the whole situation, and I believe we will start a new era."
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In his first interview with a Western news organization since he was elected president of the Palestinian Authority on Jan. 9, Abbas spoke with confidence and humor in nearly fluent English.
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He also made these other points:
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He revealed that Hamas had made a commitment to him to run in the July elections for the Palestinian legislature, continuing Hamas's "conversion into a political party."
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He said he had fired nine senior police and national-security officials in Gaza and was prepared to fire more if they did not get "the first message."
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The release of Palestinian prisoners is his first priority, he said, and will be a measure of how much tensions will cool in the West Bank and Gaza.
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He will reject any idea of a sovereign Palestinian state in temporary borders before a final settlement.
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The Americans are talking to him "in a very helpful way," and he hopes the Bush administration can deliver on its promises of political and economic aid.
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At nearly 70, he expects to retire after a single term.
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At their meeting in Sharm el Sheik, Sharon had made many positive commitments, Abbas said, including a further release of Palestinian prisoners, a joint committee to discuss releasing the 200 or so held since before the 1993 Oslo accords, the pullback of the Israeli military in the West Bank and the reopening of Gaza's seaport.
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Sharon also spoke "about the Palestinian independent democratic state" and "about the occupation, never to be an occupier any more," Abbas said. "So on all these things he was positive, but what we want to know is the implementation on the ground."
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Asked about his first priority, Abbas was quick and explicit. "Prisoners, prisoners are our priority, and we told everyone about it," he said, from the new U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, to President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. "The situation will be stabilized and will cool down in Gaza and the West Bank" to the degree that Sharon "helps us to release the prisoners," Abbas said.
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The Palestinian Authority says Israel holds nearly 8,000 Palestinians, but the Israeli government has had fierce debates about whether to release Palestinians held for attacks against Israelis, with Sharon expressing public understanding of Abbas's need to show Palestinians quick benefits from the new quiet.
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But Abbas then wants to move quickly to political discussions with Sharon about implementing the peace plan known as the road map, including the issues of final borders, refugees, Jerusalem and President George W. Bush's "initiative about a democratic Palestinian state," Abbas said. He is happy to coordinate Israel's withdrawal from Gaza with Sharon, but the Palestinians need a political horizon looking toward a real state, he said.
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Although the road map talks of the option of declaring a sovereign "Palestinian state within provisional borders" while talks continue about a final settlement, Abbas said: "If it is up to me, I will reject it." Palestinians will see an interim solution as a trap, replacing a final settlement, and "peace will not prevail any more in the region," he said.
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"So it's better for us and for the Israelis to go directly to final status," he said. "I told Sharon that it's better for both sides to establish this back channel to deal with final status and go in parallel with the stages of the road map."
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What did Sharon say? Abbas laughed. "He didn't respond. But we'll talk more about it. Maybe he didn't like it. We have to repeat it more and more in our ongoing negotiations."
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Abbas said he was surprised that the armed militants, many wanted by Israel, embraced his candidacy. "All the fugitives came to me from all factions and said, 'We are for you, you were with us and we want you to solve our problems,"' he said. They wanted real jobs in the security forces of the Palestinian Authority "and to be secure from Israeli assassination and attacks," he said. "I promised them, and now it is realized."
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Was the intifada of the past four and half years a mistake? "We cannot say it was a mistake," he said. "But any war will have an end. And what is the end? To sit around the table and talk. And they realize that this is the time to come to the table and talk and negotiate."
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Asked if Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which are labeled terrorist organizations by the United States, want what he wants, he laughed and said: "No, of course they don't want what I want! They want to come to power if they can. For that they ran in municipal elections and after that they will go" to the legislative elections. "And if they win, of course they want power. And it is their right. It is the competition" of democracy.
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Asked about Hamas's recent victory in local elections in seven of the 10 Gazan cities and villages, Abbas said: "This is democracy. We have to congratulate Hamas and say, 'O.K., you won.' "
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His own mainstream Fatah faction had made many mistakes, he said. The vote "is a good lesson for Fatah to realize its position toward this and that and prepare themselves for the coming elections" for Parliament on July 17.
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Fatah is already working to renew itself and bring in a younger generation "in parallel" with preparations for the elections, Abbas said, including work to form a new government, expected within the next week. There are some in Fatah who worry Hamas could win more than 40 percent of the vote.
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Abbas argued that democracy would help tame the radicals. "Of course they should be converted into a political party," he said. "It's good for us, we're talking about national unity."
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< < Back to Start of Article GAZA CITY The Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, said in an interview that the war with the Israelis was effectively over and that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was speaking "a different language" to the Palestinians.
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Sharon's commitment to withdraw from Gaza and dismantle all Israeli settlements there and four in the West Bank, despite "how much pressure is on him from the Israeli Likud rightists," Abbas said, "is a good sign to start with" on the road to real peace. "And now he has a partner."
.
In a 40-minute interview in his Gaza office late Saturday night, Abbas spoke with pride about persuading the radical groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad to respect the mutual declaration of truce that he and Sharon announced Tuesday at their first summit meeting in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt.
.
Abbas said that the war with the Israelis would be over "when the Israelis declare that they will comply with the agreement I made in Sharm el Sheik, and today our comrades in Hamas and Jihad said they are committed to the truce, the cooling down of the whole situation, and I believe we will start a new era."
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