Press Release

NEWSWEEK INTERVIEW: Mahmoud Abbas - Former Palestinian Prime Minister

Date: Sunday June 13

Says He Resigned Because He Was Attacked By Colleagues; Felt Someone Was Going To Kill Him, 'Or Cause Bloodshed Within Fatah Itself' Has Not Spoken To Arafat Since Resignation

NEW YORK, June 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Mahmoud Abbas, who was touted as the un- Arafat when he was named Palestinian prime minister more than a year ago, tells Newsweek that are three reasons he resigned from the post after just 129 days in office, one of which is he believed he was going to be killed. "[Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon didn't give me anything. Secondly, I was attacked by my colleagues, and thirdly, Bush was reluctant to help," he tells Special Correspondent Dan Ephron in the June 21 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, June 14). (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040613/NYSU004 ) When asked about the attacks, Abbas says, "There was incitement. Words and more than words -- the demonstration against me before the Palestinian Legislative Council. This was the peak. Two days later I resigned. It was the fourth of September, and after that I asked for a closed session. I exposed all the secrets and then I sent my resignation to Chairman Arafat." He agrees that a national leader must be able to withstand criticism and incitement. But then adds that he felt someone was going to kill him. "Or to cause bloodshed within Fatah itself."

Abbas says that even though he's in Ramallah, 100 meters away from Arafat, he does not speak to him. "I don't go to him, I don't meet with him, I don't have any relations with him," he says. And under "no circumstances whatsoever" would he be willing to return to the position. "I will not go back."

Abbas says they knew nothing about Sharon's plan to withdraw unilaterally from Gaza. "It shocked us." He continues: "President Bush told me in the White House [last July] that this [Israeli] wall that snakes through the West Bank should stop. He was very angry when I showed him the map. He threw the map to Cheney and told him there's no [possibility of an] independent state anymore. He said we would go to the final-status talks right away in a back channel. He said, 'Next time you come to Washington we'll establish this channel-Palestinians, Israelis and Americans-to talk secretly about final- status issues'." The channel was never established because Abbas resigned one month later.

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