Abbas says Annapolis conference achieved its goal
Palestinian president says Annapolis meet succeeded in jumpstarting Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, sets out to undermine Hamas' hold on Gaza
"The main goal of the Annapolis conference was to launch negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis and this is in fact what happened," Abbas told reporters in Cairo after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
At the US meeting in the city of Annapolis, Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert formally restarted negotiations after a seven-year freeze in the peace process, aiming to conclude a comprehensive agreement by the end of 2008.
Abbas said that a steering committee would be set up that would begin negotiations on Decemeber 12 including on the core issues such as the status of Jerusalem, the borders of a future Palestinian state and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
Former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia will head the Palestinian negotiating team, Abbas said.
The committee will meet continuously over the course of 2008 according to a joint document released at the Annapolis conference.
In the document, both sides agreed to create a mechanism to monitor the implementation of a Road Map for peace, which calls for establishing a Palestinian state living in peace alongside a secure Israel.
"There are two other meetings after Annapolis, one in Paris and the other in Moscow," Abbas said.
International donors are expected to meet in Paris later this month to coordinate a three-year aid program for the Palestinians, and next month Russia is to organize a follow-up meeting to the Annapolis talks, according to a European diplomat.
Doing the impossible
Meanwhile, pushed by the US promise of a future Palestinian state, Abbas is trying to do the impossible – getting Hamas Islamists to give up the Gaza Strip.
Abbas has done little to explain how he expects to achieve such a feat, either through new elections or militarily.
He and Olmert launched their peoples' first formal peace talks in seven years this week with the goal of forging a deal next year to create a state in Gaza and the West Bank, together home to 4 million Palestinians.
Hamas has vowed to undermine Abbas's talks with Olmert by keeping up its fight against Israel.
His secular Fatah forces having been routed in Gaza, Abbas assured Bush at a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, that he would not engage in dialogue with the Islamist group unless it first gave up control of Gaza.
But Abbas acknowledged: "We do not know what procedures will be used."
Abbas said he intended to put any final peace deal with Israel to a referendum, seeking public support to weaken Hamas's hold on Gaza.
Hamas maintains that Abbas does not have the power to call elections and that any new polls must wait until 2010 under Palestinian law.
AP and Reuters contributed to this report
