Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haneya said on Sunday that
holding early elections, as proposed by the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO), will lead to chaos, the official IRNA news
agency reported.
"The recommendation of PLO executive committee runs counter to
the legal rights of the Palestinian government," Haneya told
reporters before wrapping up his four-day visit to Iran. The PLO's
recommendation is considered as the "beginning of chaos in
Palestine," Haneya was quoted as saying.
"While safeguarding integrity and solidarity is important to us,
we oppose any political despotism," he said.
"Ever since the Hamas government took office, we feel that some
individuals are unjustly stabbing us from behind," Haneya added,
without elaboration.
Haneya, who arrived in Tehran on Thursday to pay a four-day
visit, is on his first tour abroad since he took office in March in
a bid to rally support for the Palestinian cause and break up siege
imposed by the West and Israel.
Abbas may call early elections
Palestinian sources said Saturday that President Mahmoud Abbas
is ready to call early elections to end a political impasse with
the governing Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) if Hamas
continues to refuse a compromise.
Abbas voiced his readiness at a meeting of the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO)'s powerful executive committee, said
the sources who attended the meeting, adding the Palestinian leader
also plans to deliver a formal nationwide speech next week.
According to the sources, Abbas told the PLO meeting that he
would dismiss the parliament and call early elections to end the
political impasse with Hamas, but left the door open to reaching a
compromise with Hamas.
Earlier on Saturday, media reports said that Abbas is to head a
PLO meeting on Saturday in Ramallah to set a date for his
prospective speech on the political crisis.
Sources at Abbas' office told Palestinian Ramattan news agency
that the Palestinian President may deliver his speech on
Sunday.
It is expected that Abbas, who is also the chief of Fatah
movement, to talk about the reasons that blocked the formation of a
unity government that was sought to lift embargo by the West on the
current Hamas administration.
Mutual talks between Fatah and Hamas to form a coalition have
reached a dead end after controversy on sharing major
portfolios.
Ayman Daraghma, a Hamas lawmaker, told Voice of Palestine radio
Saturday that his movement was willing to resume the
inter-Palestinian talks to form the national unity government.
However, Daraghma said the Hamas-led government would stay in
power if the proposed unity government is not formed according to
the Prisoners' Document of National Accordance.
The document calls for an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders
and the creation of an independent statehood lives alongside Israel
inside these borders.
(Xinhua News Agency December 11, 2006)
