Israel says Abbas not delivering on peace: report
Reuters
Date: 10-28-05
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's defense minister was quoted on Friday as saying Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was "not delivering the goods" as a peace partner and voicing doubts about achieving a peace deal in this generation.
Echoing other top Israelis' growing frustration with Abbas, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz derided him as a "one-man show with no substance behind him" at a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday, the daily Yedioth Ahronoth said.
Within hours of Mofaz's Cairo talks, a Palestinian suicide bomber killed five people in the Israeli coastal city of Hadera, the first such attack since Israel's Gaza pullout last month.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has criticized Abbas for failing to rein in Palestinian militants and has ruled out renewed talks with him until he takes "serious action" against armed groups. Abbas also has come under growing U.S. pressure.
Israel has retaliated with air strikes in Gaza, including one that killed a senior Islamic Jihad commander, three of his comrades and four bystanders on Thursday.
"There's really no one to talk to. Abu Mazen and his colleagues in the Palestinian leadership are idling," Mofaz was quoted as saying after his return from Cairo, referring to Abbas by his nickname. "They've still done nothing. The Palestinian Authority is not an address for us."
Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat said that in order to make peace, Israel must end its occupation of the West Bank. "Israel has a partner but it seems to me that the non-partner (for peace) and the unilateral steps are what characterize Israel," he told Reuters.
The Palestinian Authority condemned the Israeli air strikes as "terrorist acts that will not help in restoring security."
Mofaz was quoted as voicing skepticism about the prospects for peace in the foreseeable future.
"I am not at all sure that we will ever be able to reach a peace agreement with the current Palestinian leadership. We will have to wait for the next generation," Mofaz was quoted as saying. "We need to admit that the Palestinian partner is not delivering the goods."
The Defense Ministry confirmed that Mofaz had criticized Abbas for a leadership "vacuum" and said the best that could be expected for now was an interim agreement unless Abbas cracked down on armed groups. It did not confirm or deny other comments attributed to Mofaz by the newspaper.
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