Possible departure could complicate peace negotiations with Israel
Concerns were raised about the future of the Palestinian Authority on Monday after aids to its president, Mahmoud Abbas, announced the Palestinian leader would resign. Abbas has already announced he will not take part in January’s Palestinian elections, but this latest bit of news raises the spectre of a more immediate departure. “I think he is realizing that he came all this way with the peace process in order to create a Palestinian state, but he sees no state coming,” says Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian peace negotiator. “So he really doesn’t think there is a need to be president or to have an Authority.” Some say these kinds of apocalyptic statements are simply a political ploy, intended to boost Abbas’s power in negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Abbas, after all, has threatened to resign several times before. Meanwhile, Netanyahu met with U.S. President Barack Obama Monday night and they were expected to discuss Abbas’s resignation threats.