Lieberman: Abbas represents only "half" of Palestinians

Jul 13, 2009, 7:52 GMT

Tel Aviv - Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Monday questioned the legitimacy of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The controversial leader of the ultra-nationalist Israel Beiteinu coalition party told Israel Radio that Abbas represents 'at best half the (Palestinian) people.'

Abbas, elected in January 2005 presidential elections, saw his term as president officially end last January.

He has since remained in office, noting that he was elected early after the November 2004 death of late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, and that under Palestinian law, the presidential elections must be held simultaneously with parliamentary elections, due January 2010.

Doubt however has arisen over whether the parliamentary elections, too, can be held, amid the ongoing stand-off between Abbas' Fatah party and its bitter rival, the radical Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza.

Since Hamas violently seized sole control of the coastal strip, Abbas' Ramallah-based administration has remained in control on the ground only in the West Bank.

Lieberman accused Abbas of having called for Israel's more moderate opposition leader, Tzipi Livni, to replace him as foreign minister.

In the radio interview, the Israel Beiteinu leader sarcastically described Abbas' alleged call for his replacement as a 'compliment.'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of the hardline, but mainstream Likud party, Sunday reiterated his call to Abbas for an immediate resumption of peace negotiations without preconditions.

Netanyahu told his cabinet, meeting in the southern Israeli desert city of Beersheba, that he had proposed to Abbas that they meet soon, somewhere in Israel.

That could even be Beersheba, he said.

The Palestinians, suspicious of his sincerity, have thus far ignored Netanyahu's calls for a resumption of talks.