Abbas admits ordering Goldstone report delay

Published today (updated) 18/10/2009 13:25

Bethlehem – Ma'an –

President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday defended his decision to postpone debate on South African judge Richard Goldstone's fact-finding mission on Israeli war crimes in Gaza in January 2009, at the UN Human Rights Council last month.

"I accepted the commission, and I am the one in charge," he said, speaking at a meeting of Fat'h's Revolutionary Council in Ramallah. "Nobody operated without my approval."

He explained, "I gave directives to [PLO Ambassador] Ibrahim Khuraisha to find a way to re-submit the Goldstone report, and a week later he did. The report was discussed, and was approved. Where's the treason they accuse us of?"

The president insisted the Palestinian Authority supported the report, but deferred it for practical reasons.

"When the Goldstone report was released, we agreed on it and welcomed it," he said. "Arab countries proposed a high-level resolution 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 resolution which holds us responsible for the war on Gaza. Neither resolution was passed."

Thus, Abbas said, "It was necessary to find a compromise. We found that it would be better to defer discussion of the report."

But he also said that it was not technically the PA that delayed the resolution, since the government is not a full member of the council, "and we can't submit, or withdraw, or delay a proposal. Everybody was silenced."

In any case, the president said his rivals were using the issue to score political points.

"Then some (people) began accusing us of erring," he said. "Who read the report, anyway? Those who were in Geneva didn't read the report, because it needed to be translated. 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," he noted, referring to widespread anger at the PA and PLO for what some (people), including high-ranking Hamas members, termed treasonous. "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," Abbas claimed. "The least I can describe this as is shame. Is the mission an opportunity to attack us? For what?"

With regard to the new Palestinian mobile provider Wataniya, Abbas said the company was licensed by the Ministry of Communications during the former Ismail Haniyah government, and that the PA had no shares in the company.

Those comments seemed in response to allegations that the PA obstructed the mission in exchange for financial favors from Israel, which has refused to hand over frequencies needed to run the mobile service.

Abbas also announced that he intended to decree legislative and presidential elections be held on 25 January 2010. "I am very serious. Underline this phrase, and I will have another talk after this date."

Abbas slams Fatah officials for faulting his delay of Goldstone’s report

[ 18/10/2009 - 09:49 AM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)--

Former ex-chief of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday strongly denounced some of his aides and Fatah officials for admitting that the withdrawal of Goldstone’s report was a mistake, alleging that what happened came in the natural course of events and under his direct orders.

“When some started to say repeatedly we made a mistake…We made a mistake about what? Who read the report? Even those in Geneva did not read the report because it needed a translation,” Abbas said in a speech before the Fatah revolutionary council in Ramallah.

“Let’s say we have seen it…Ask yourselves why we made a mistake and why we say that! Is it because we want to face the campaign of Hamas? I am very upset at such acts,” he added.

In his speech, Abbas also sprang a surprise that would torpedo all reconciliation efforts, when he revealed that he agreed with Cairo on making the reconciliation agreement fulfil the international quartet’s terms and what he called the constitution of the Palestine liberation organization (PLO).

Abbas admitted that he sent a letter to Cairo in response to the Egyptian reconciliation paper that included his rejection of any reconciliation agreement that does not get the Israeli siege lifted, explaining that this means that any agreement, which is contrary to the "international legitimacy" and ends up like Makkah accord, would not be accepted.

He also aborted the Egyptian reconciliation efforts, when he declared he would hold unilateral presidential and legislative elections on January 25, 2010.

Abbas acknowledged that he contacted Israeli war minister Ehud Barak in order to obtain the radio frequencies of the new telecom operator, revealing that PA officials had paid bribes to Israeli officials in order to prevent the new company from getting these frequencies in the context of conflicting interests that exist between the company of Jawal (the leading provider of mobile phone service in Palestine) and the new telecom operator.

In another context related to the elections, spokesman for the Palestinian government in Gaza Taher Al-Nunu deplored the talk of Yasser Abedrabbo, a member of the PLO executive committee, about holding elections in case the reconciliation failed.

Nunu affirmed that his Movement is not afraid of holding elections on condition that there should be a mechanism to prevent any falsification of the Palestinian people’s will.

He noted that the acts of forgery and manipulation are a systematic policy pursued by Fatah faction, citing as an example the electoral fraud that happened during its sixth conference.