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Abbas rejects temporary statehood plan

Atul Aneja

DUBAI: Rejecting the idea of temporary statehood, the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has stressed that only a Palestinian state with permanent borders would be acceptable to his people.

Mr. Abbas made the assertion following talks in Ramallah with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "We told Secretary Rice that we reject any temporary solutions, including a transitional stage, because we don't see it as a realistic option," he said at a news conference. Israel had mooted the proposal of establishing a temporary Palestinian state earlier.

Before her meeting with Mr. Abbas, Ms. Rice held talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Later she visited Jordan for a few hours for consultations with the King Abdullah II. A meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is slated for Monday.

The Palestinian side made it clear during talks that it was averse to half-measures, and was looking to kick-start a process that would lead to full-fledged statehood.

Final status

"We want this to be the beginning of the endgame. It's high time the peace process was revived in order to implement negotiations on final status issues," said Saeb Erekat, a senior adviser to Mr. Abbas. The Fatah movement led by Mr. Abbas is under pressure to show progress. The security situation in the Palestinian territories is fast deteriorating and gun battles take place between security forces loyal to Fatah and the fighters of the Hamas.

Analysts point out that the Fatah is upset with the Israeli side, as it has not eased checkpoint restrictions for Palestinians, despite recent discussions between Mr. Abbas and Mr. Olmert.

Mr. Abbas will visit Damascus later this week for talks with Hamas leader Khaled Meshal, based there. Talks would focus on the formation of a national unity government. The Hamas' refusal to recognise the state of Israel has been a stumbling block in the talks.

Mr. Abbas warned on Sunday that he would call for early presidential and legislative elections in case efforts to form a national unity government failed. Ms. Rice's West Asia tour would take her to Kuwait where she would meet the Foreign Ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Talks are expected to focus on the developments in Iraq and the role of Iran and Syria there. The dialogue takes place within days of the adoption of a new aggressive U.S. approach to tackle spiralling violence in Iraq.

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