Mahmoud Abbas

RAMALLAH,
Occupied Palestine, Dec. 7--Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ruled out the possibility of creating a provisional state, raised at last week’s Mideast summit, because of fears that its temporary borders would become permanent.
Abbas told Palestinian lawmakers that during the summit in Annapolis, Maryland, the idea of a provisional state was brought up, but he turned it down--though it is a key part of the internationally backed “road map“ formula for creating a Palestinian state, AP reported.
Abbas said that at the Annapolis summit presided over by U.S. President George W. Bush, “There was talk about a state with provisional borders. We reject provisional borders, because these (borders) will be final.“
In their joint declaration, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas agreed that the 2003 “road map“ plan would be a basis for resuming peace negotiations.
The first talks under the new framework are set for next Wednesday.
The second step of the three-stage road map states calls for “creating an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders and attributes of sovereignty.“
Creating temporary borders would allow the Palestinians to have independence, while giving the sides more time to work out contentious issues like the final status of disputed Beit-ul-Moqaddas.
However, Palestinian leaders disowned the idea shortly after the plan was put forward, reflecting concern that the temporary borders would never be changed.
Israel, which captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, wants to retain major blocs of Jewish settlements.
Palestinians claim all of the West Bank, insisting that a 1949 cease-fire line be the border, though some exchanges of territory are a possibility.

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Dec. 7--Lebanon’s presidential election faced further delay on Friday, despite rival leaders’ agreement in principle to give the post to army chief Michel Suleiman.
Direct talks between the anti-Syrian ruling majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition, brokered by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner this week, have failed to clinch a deal on how to amend the constitution to allow Suleiman to take the job, reported Reuters.
Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun, who has his own demands, has also yet to give his consent.
Parliament was due to meet for a vote at 1 p.m. (0600 EST), but senior political sources said they expected the session to be put off for the seventh time since the first attempt on September 25.
“Things are moving in the right direction but more time is needed,“ one source said, adding that there would be more contacts between the opposing camps during the day.
The presidency, reserved for a Maronite Christian under Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system, has been empty since pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud left office on November 23.
The vote will go ahead only if the Western-backed majority and the opposition reach a prior agreement that would secure a two-thirds quorum for the electoral session.
Electing a president would help defuse a political crisis that has paralyzed Lebanon for more than a year and led to its worst internal strife since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who is also an opposition leader, and majority coalition leader Saad Al-Hariri have met in the past few days in the presence of Kouchner, who has traveled to Lebanon seven times this year to tackle the political crisis.
They have discussed electing Suleiman, the shape of the next government and a new law for a parliamentary election in 2009.
Political sources said one obstacle was a demand by Aoun that the next prime minister be a neutral figure, although his opposition colleagues were ready to accept a candidate chosen by the ruling majority.

LISBON, Portugal, Dec. 7--European and African parliament members told their leaders on Friday they would be ignoring the plight of thousands of civilians if they failed to tackle the crisis in Sudan’s Darfur at a weekend summit in Portugal.
The appeal by 40 parliamentarians was joined by 50 European and African human rights groups. They said in a separate letter that not acting on the crisis would mean turning “our back on the people of Darfur,“ where 200,000 people have been killed, Reuters reported.
The UN Security Council approved in July a UN-African Union peace mission of 26,000 soldiers and police for Darfur. But UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno has cast doubt on the mission due to restrictions imposed by Sudan.
“MPs, campaigners and human rights activists are all asking the same question: how can our leaders ignore one of the world’s worst crises?“ asked Glenys Kinnock, a member of the European Parliament.
“Especially when (Sudanese) President (Omar Hassan Al-) Bashir, the man primarily responsible for so much of the suffering, is in their midst,“ she said in a statement.
The EU-Africa summit, the first in seven years, formally takes place on Saturday and Sunday but the more than 70 EU and African leaders began arriving for a banquet on Friday evening.
The EU has come under fire from human rights activists for allowing Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe to attend. Mugabe, who arrived in Lisbon late on Thursday, is accused by the West of rigging elections and suppressing opposition but is seen by African leaders as an independence hero and many said they would not attend if he was not invited.
Previous attempts to hold the summit have failed over Mugabe’s attendance but this time the EU, mindful of growing Chinese influence in Africa, decided to hold the summit and invite Mugabe.
A European visa ban on the Zimbabwean leader was lifted for the event, allowing him to set foot on the continent for the first time since 2001.
Reed Brody, counsel of Human Rights Watch, said if Mugabe participates in the summit like any other leader, he would come out as the victor.