Senior aide denies report that Abbas threatened to resign

Abbas threatening to re

By JPOST.COM STAFF, KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Tayeb Abdel Rahim, a senior aide to Mahmoud Abbas, on Monday night denied a Channel 10 report claiming that the Palestinian Authority president was seriously considering resigning. According to the report, over the past few days, Abbas sent fierce messages to the White House, threatening to step down and saying he would not participate in the next Palestinian elections, no matter when they are held. Senior PA negotiator Saeb Erekat refused to comment on the reports, according to Israel Radio. According to the report, the PA president's main complaints to Washington were that the peace talks with the government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu were stuck and that Washington had "abandoned" him by caving in to Israeli demands. Abbas also mentioned the political damage he suffered after initially agreeing to defer until March the UN Human Rights Council's vote on endorsing the Goldstone Report, and said he saw no chance of reconciliation with Hamas. US president Barack Obama personally telephoned Abbas in order to calm him, the TV station reported. In response to the report, a senior aide to the prime minister told the station that "Netanyahu has made several steps in order to resume the peace process, as the US government is well aware. The prime minister called on the PA to immediately resume negotiations without preconditions. "Unlike the prime minister, the Palestinians are toughening their positions and setting preconditions to the negotiations, which weren't set for any previous government. It's a shame that their obvious political moves are burdening the peace process," the source reportedly concluded.