Palestinian presidential candidate Mahmoud Abbas canceled a campaign stop planned in Jerusalem, saying Israeli security arrangements would have embarrassed him, a campaign official said yesterday.
Abbas had been tentatively scheduled to travel to Jerusalem yesterday to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, hold a rally and tour the Old City.
PHOTO: AP
The campaign official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Israel wanted to provide Abbas a large security detail, concerned that Jewish extremists might attack him.
Abbas decided on Wednesday that being surrounded by Israeli security forces during a stop in front of his own people would have been embarrassing, the official said.
Instead, Abbas planned a campaign stop in Beir Naballah, a Palestinian town on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
Israeli police spokesman Gil Kleiman said no request had been received for Abbas to enter the city.
Abbas on Thursday declared that he hoped peace negotiations with Israel could resume soon after the winner of tomorrow's vote is declared on Monday.
Abbas said he viewed the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, as a potential partner in such peace talks. Earlier this week, Abbas irritated the Israeli government by referring to Israel as "the Zionist enemy."
The emolient words, which were welcomed by the Israeli government, came as Abbas and the other six candidates toured the West Bank and Gaza campaigning for tomorrow's election, the first for a Palestinian leader since Arafat was elected in 1996.
Speaking at a press conference in Nablus, a volatile city in the West Bank which suffered badly from an Israeli invasion ordered by Sharon two years ago, Abbas said: "After the elections, we will start negotiations. Ariel Sharon is an elected leader and we will negotiate with him. We will put the road map [the peace agreement drawn up by the UN, the US, the EU and Russia] on the table and say that we are ready to implement it completely."
Serious negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians are unlikely until Sharon completes his planned withdrawal of soldiers and Jewish settlers from Gaza in the summer.
Palestinians attending rallies on Thursday, though enjoying the novelty of the election, were pessimistic about the chances of lasting peace and were divided about whether Palestinian militants should cease operations against Israel.
Abbas has been trying to secure a ceasefire agreement from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but the two militant groups -- both of which are boycotting the election -- have stepped up rocket and mortar attacks on Israel over the last week. They claim they are responding to Israeli attacks.
While polls indicate that Abbas will win 60-65 percent of the vote, he needs a big turnout to secure the kind of mandate that will help him face down Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The same polls put Mustafa Barghouti, an academic and human rights campaigner, in second place, on about 20 percent.
Barghouti, addressing students at Birzeit University outside Ramallah on Thursday, said voting for Abbas would be voting for a continuation of the old system whereas he promised to clean up democratic institutions, the judicial system and the economy.
He described the call for Hamas and Islamic Jihad to stop their attacks as "a mistake" by Abbas. "To expect there to be a complete ceasefire while the other side [Israel] keeps shooting is unrealistic," he said.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a