Palestinian Authority leader, citing U.S. stance, says he won't run for reelection

Mahmoud Abbas laments a lack of U.S. support for his position on reviving peace talks with Israel and insists his decision is not a bargaining ploy. Supporters hope he will reconsider.

By Richard Boudreaux

November 6, 2009

Reporting from Jerusalem

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced today that he would not seek reelection next year, citing a lack of U.S. support for his conditions for resuming peace talks with Israel.

In a televised speech, the 74-year-old Palestinian leader said the move was not a tactic to bring more pressure on Israel, although his language appeared to leave room for a change of heart.

Visibly tense, Abbas spoke hours after the Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee heard his decision in a closed-door meeting and urged him to reconsider.

"I have told our brethren in the PLO . . . that I have no desire to run in the forthcoming election," Abbas said. "This decision is not one of bargaining, or a maneuver, at all.

"I hope they understand this position of mine, taking note that there are other steps I will take," he added, without elaborating.

Abbas has been frustrated by the Obama administration's inability to secure a halt to Israel's expansion of Jewish settlements on West Bank land the Palestinians want for a future state.

U.S.-brokered peace talks broke off in December, and Abbas has refused to resume them until Israel agrees to a settlement freeze. Aides said he began speaking of stepping down after the administration in recent weeks backed away from its insistence on a freeze and urged the two sides to settle their differences on the issue at the negotiating table.

President Obama telephoned Abbas late last month, the aides said, to reassure him of Washington's commitment to a peace accord creating an independent Palestinian state. But days later Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on a stop in Jerusalem, applauded Israel's offer to restrain settlement growth without halting it altogether.

On Wednesday, she sought to counteract Arab anger over those comments by saying in Cairo that the administration has "a very firm belief that ending all settlement activity, current and future, would be preferable."

In his speech, Abbas praised the U.S. administration for working toward peace. But he added: "We were surprised by their favoring the Israeli position."

"We were obligated, along with the Israelis and with the international community's support, to strive for a two-state solution and we made great sacrifices," he said. "Yet the Israeli government is adopting a policy that ruins all peace efforts."

Abbas was elected to head the Palestinian Authority and the PLO in 2005 after the death of Yasser Arafat, who helped found and led both. The Palestinian Authority is due to elect a president and parliament next year, and Abbas has set Jan. 24 as the date for voting in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

He previously has threatened to resign, and supporters in his Fatah movement said they are still uncertain whether his decision this time is final. The movement was planning a rally in the West Bank to urge him to reverse his decision.

The Israeli newspaper Maariv reported that Israeli President Shimon Peres and the leaders of Jordan and Egypt had telephoned Abbas hours before his speech to make a similar appeal.

Abbas' decision aside, it is not clear that elections will be held at all. Abbas' government controls only the West Bank. Hamas, the militant group that ousted Fatah's forces from Gaza in 2007 and runs the enclave, has said it will not take part in elections unless the rival movements reconcile their differences over a broad range of issues.

Hamas spokesman Sami abu Zuhri said Abbas' speech was a message of reproach to the Palestinian president's friends: the Americans and the Israelis.

"We advise him to . . . face the Palestinian people and tell them frankly that the path of negotiations has failed. Halt negotiations with the occupation and take practical steps toward reconciliation," Abu Zuhri said.