Palestinians “guests” in Lebanon, presence temporary
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas concluded a two-day visit to Lebanon on Tuesday with a news conference at the Habtoor Hotel in Sin al-Fil, where he told reporters that Palestinian refugees were “guests in Lebanon.” He reiterated Lebanon’s full authority and sovereignty over all Palestinian refugee camps while underscoring that the refugees’ presence was temporary, until a comprehensive peace solution was reached.
Tackling Palestinian domestic issues, Abbas said: “If Hamas persists in its refusal to allow the [presidential and parliamentary] polls to take place in Gaza, I will not agree to the vote in the West Bank.”
The Palestinian electoral commission said last month that the polls called for January should be postponed because the vote could not be organized in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Abbas had called the presidential and parliamentary elections for January 24, when the four-year mandate of the current Hamas-dominated Parliament runs out.
Abbas said he stood by his decision not to stand for re-election as president.
“I have not changed my mind and this decision is neither a maneuver, nor a tactic nor a joke,” he said.
The bitter rift between Fatah and Hamas goes back to the start of limited Palestinian self-rule in the 1990s, when strongmen of the secular Fatah cracked down on the Islamist militant group.
Tensions jumped during the last parliamentary polls in January 2006 when Hamas, standing for the first time in a national ballot, won an upset victory over the long-dominant Fatah.
Before leaving Beirut on Tuesday, Prime Minister Saad Hariri held a lunch in honor of Abbas in downtown Beirut, where they discussed regional and Palestinian issues.