Text: Abu Mazen tells PLC he avoided complying with Roadmap
[IMRA: While various Washington officials sang the praises of Abu Mazen
until his resignation, Abu Mazen explains in the following excerpt of his
resignation speech how he avoided complying with the requirements of the
Roadmap.]
PA's Mahmud Abbas Addresses PLC Closed Session, Criticizes Arafat's Policies
GMP20030910000030 London Quds Press (Internet Version-WWW) in Arabic 1045
GMT 09 Sep 03
Ramallah Al-Ayyam Arabic 07 Sep 03 Reasons for PA Government's Resignation
as Presented By Mahmud Abbas to LC GMP20030907000064 Jerusalem Al-Quds
Arabic 07 Sep 03
["Text" of speech outgoing Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas delivered
at a closed Palestinian Legislative Council session in Ramallah on 6
September 2003]
[FBIS (US government agency) Translated Text]
[With thanks to www.mideastweb.org/mewnews1.htm ]
God's peace and blessings be upon you. I did not ask for a secret session. I
asked for a session that is closed to the media because I wanted to place
before you in the Palestinian Legislative Council [PLC] issues I do not want
to be open to the media although I am sure they will reach the news media in
all detail. This is the case although we hear official and non-official
spokesmen every hour making statements without having their names mentioned.
They even demand that their names are withheld.
At the outset I would like to apologize to the PLC for the insult directed
to it due to my visit. This led to the shattering of some window panes. It
also led to attacks on some government members and riots by some. I
apologize to the PLC because this happened because of my visit to the PLC.
.
Many say I want to place the security services at my disposal and command
and want to free them from brother Abu-Ammar's grip. This is false and it
has never happened. I do not want the security services to be at my disposal
and this is a long story. The basic law says the internal security services
are headed by the prime minister or interior minister. I think this is
clear.
The road map says: All security services are at the disposal of the prime
minister. I did not even ask for the unification of the services. When I was
asked I said all the efforts of the security services should be unified and
did not say all the security services should be unified. Thus, all we called
for was coordination between the security services. When the Americans spoke
about the unity of the services, we told them we do not want that.
Here I would like to say that I am not the one who approved the road map. It
was also not my government which approved the road map. It was approved on
20 December last year. Brother Sa'ib Urayqat was the first to speak on
behalf of the PA and the former government and announce acceptance of the
road map as it is. The road map calls for the unification of the security
services. We surmounted this obstacle. It called for striking and uprooting
the organizations. We surmounted this obstacle, too, because we do not want
trouble. We do not want to start a civil war and we cannot unify the
services because brother Abu-Ammar places three quarters of the security
services at his disposal. He refuses any kind of coordination between them
and the rest of the services.
. . .
This resulted in the truce, which the Israelis and Americans rejected, but
was imposed on them. They were told there was no other solution although the
road map, which we approved, said the so-called terrorist organizations
should be pounded and uprooted. Therefore, we got over or tried to get over
the tragedy in which we would have put ourselves if we had listened to them.
. . .
I sent the government resignation letter to brother Abu-Ammar today. God's
peace and blessing be upon you.
[Description of Source: London Quds Press (Internet Version-WWW) in
Arabic -- Independent news agency headquartered in the UK; devotes special
attention to Palestinian events and Arab-Israeli peace process; received via
e-mail]
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