Abbas tries to lure pressure on Israel

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By Ryan Jones
November 15, 2005

PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday the West's top priority of overseeing the dawn of a peaceful Middle East could be achieved in no more than six months if Israel could just be transformed into a ?willing partner.?

?If we have an Israeli partner willing to engage in these negotiations, mark our words we do not need more than six months to conclude an historic permanent status treaty,? Abbas said.

His transparent attempt to attract additional international pressure on Israel to be more malleable to Arab demands was part of a prepared speech delivered at a conference marking 10 years since the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.

In a separate televised address commemorating Yasser Arafat's 1988 declaration of independence for ?Palestine,? Abbas reiterated he had no intention of disarming and dismantling ?Palestinian? terrorist organizations in accordance with his Road Map obligations.

Abbas accused Israel of trying to push the Palestinian Arabs into a civil war by insisting he follow through on those commitments before final status negotiations begin.

Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ze'ev Boim responded by pointing out the Palestinian Authority was supposed to eliminate the threat of anti-Jewish terrorism as the very first step of the Road Map peace plan, not as part of its final phase.

?These conditions are clear and these are their obligations from the first stage? of the internationally-backed plan, Boim told Israel Radio.

On Monday Abbas promised visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice he would begin outlawing illegal weapons, but only after the January 26 PA parliamentary elections.

He now appears to be laying the groundwork for reneging on that promise.

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