PALESTINIAN President Mahmoud Abbas is under pressure from his Fatah faction not to attend a US-led Middle East conference, aides said on Tuesday, citing uncertainty over its participants and outcome. But the aides said Abbas believes preparations for the gathering expected around mid-November must continue. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives on Wednesday for talks with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Olmert, who has met regularly with Abbas in a bid to find common ground ahead of the conference on Palestinian statehood, has sought to lower expectations, saying Israel wanted a joint declaration out of the deliberations rather than a binding deal.
Abbas is seeking a more explicit “framework agreement” with a timeline for implementation on the core “final-status” issues of borders, Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees. His aides said Fatah, which holds sway only in the West Bank after Hamas Islamists took control of the Gaza Strip in June, is pressing Abbas to skip the meeting unless achievements and wide international participation are assured. “We can live without a conference, but we cannot live with a conference that fails,” one aide said.
Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior Fatah official, said Palestinians should not participate in a meeting that does not include “all concerned Arab parties”, naming Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. “There must be political substance to the meeting and a clear agenda, with clear outcomes concerning final-status,” Ahmad said.