AMMAN, 21 December 2004 — Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Mahmoud Abbas yesterday insisted there would be no civil war among Palestinians resulting from implementation of his vision for the demilitarization of the uprising.
And he warned that “appeasement is inevitable” for resuming peace negotiations with Israel — but Israel must also make parallel moves.
“We reject a Palestinian civil war taking place, and rule out any Palestinian inter-fighting,” Abbas said at an Amman press conference he jointly addressed with Jordanian Foreign Minister Hani Mulqi.
“The dialogue which we are conducting with Palestinian factions aims at putting the Palestinian house in order and working out a single path for the Palestinian people without any contradictions,” he added, alluding to deep differences between the Palestinian Authority and extremist factions such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The PLO chief insisted that Israel should reciprocate any cessation of Palestinian violence by ending acts of killings and destruction in the Palestinian territories.
“We see that appeasement is inevitable for enabling our people to live in peace and for paving the ground for the resumption of negotiations, but such a step should be coupled with a parallel move on the part of Israel,” he said.
