President Mahmoud Abbas intends to declare legislative and presidential elections to be held on 25 January 2010. “I am very serious. Underline this phrase, and I will have another talk after this date,” he said.
Abbas' comments came during the ongoing session of the newly elected Fatah Revolutionary Council in Ramallah. He asserted that since the new Fatah Central Committee began operating, it was agreed that everyone who can go to the Gaza Strip should not wait. With regard to the new Palestinian mobile provider, Al-Wataniya, Abbas said the company was licensed by the Palestinian minister of communications, Al-Khudari, during the former Haniyeh government, and that the Palestinian Authority has no shares in that company. He added, “To keep you updated, when the Goldstone report was released, we agreed on it and welcomed it. Arab countries proposed a high-level project to be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council, that protects our rights and it was opposed by Europe, the US, China, and Russia. Then the US suggested a very low-level project which holds us responsible for the war on Gaza. Neither project was passed."
It was necessary to find a compromise. We found that it would be better to defer discussion of the report. Well, we are not a full member of the Human Rights Council, and we can’t submit, or withdraw, or delay a proposal. Everybody was silenced. Then some began accusing us of erring. Who read the report anyway? Those who were in Geneva did not read the report, because it needed to be translated,” he said.
Abbas added, “Let’s assume we saw the report. Where did we err? Why do we say that? Everybody says we erred. Unfortunately, the fuss about the report started here in Palestine. They said, this is your opportunity to attack them fiercely. I have all the names who contacted the fact-finding mission to talk to them. The least I can describe this is shame. Is the mission an opportunity to attack us? For what?"
"I accepted the commission, and I am the one in charge. Nobody operated without my approval. It was I who made evaluations. I gave directives to [Ambassador] Ibrahim Khreisha to find a way to re-submit the Goldstone report, and a week later he did. The report was discussed, and was approved. Where is treason they accuse us of?" he said. Source: Ma'an.
