Ramallah - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas faced calls Friday to reverse his decision not to run in upcoming elections, amid fears the departure of the dovish leader would deal a death blow to the peace process. Abbas' Fatah party called up hundreds of supporters, who marched after Friday's prayers in Ramallah and a number of other West Bank cities, urging him to run for a second term. Fatah was hoping to stage larger rallies later in the weekend or next week.
Several Western and Arab officials, including Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, earlier telephoned Abbas, asking him to think over his decision.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Washington she had "tremendous respect" for Abbas and looked "forward to working with (him) in any new capacity in order to help achieve" the goal of a two-state solution the Middle East conflict.
But some local politicians and commentators blamed her, saying Clinton's siding with Israel's view that negotiations broken off late last year should resume without preconditions was the final straw that made Abbas decide to give up.
Abbas' arch-rival, the Hamas movement controlling Gaza, was quick to call his official announcement an "admission of failure."
In his televised announcement from his Ramallah headquarters, Abbas, 74, said his decision was not "a manoeuvre, nor a tactic," adding that "there are other steps I intend to take which I will announce in time."
He said he had informed the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee and Fatah's Central Committee that he is "not interested" in running for re-election."
Explaining his decision, Abbas complained that since the 1993 interim Oslo accords, "month after month, and year after year, stalling, delaying and an increase in Israeli settlement activities began to undermine the credibility of the negotiations."
Abbas said that he appreciated the role the US has played in the Middle East.
But, he added, "we were surprised by (the US) affection to the Israeli position." He referred to Clinton's and envoy George Mitchell's statements that an absolute settlement freeze should be no pre-condition for reviving talks with the Netanyahu government.
According to opinion polls, the only Fatah politician beside Abbas who enjoys stronger popular support than Hamas leader Ismail Haniya - and than Abbas himself - is jailed Palestinian uprising (Intifada) leader Marwan Barghouti, who is serving several life sentences in Israel for indirect involvement in shooting attacks against Israelis in the West Bank.
Hamas' charter opposes the two-state solution. It also supports armed struggle to achieve Palestinian independence, in the form of suicide bombings in the early years of the Intifada, and of rockets fired from Gaza in recent years. Israel has refused to talk to Hamas.
In a statement sent to journalists, Hamas was quick to describe Abbas' decision as "a very clear declaration of the failure of his (pro-peace negotiations) programme, which has reached a dead end."
It called for a return to resistance, rather than to continue security cooperation with Israel.
Israel did not react publicly to Abbas' announcement, but a government official told the country's biggest-selling daily, Yediot Ahronot, on condition of anonymity that Israeli Premier Benjamin "Netanyahu does not want Abu Mazen (Abbas) to leave. ... After Abu Mazen anyone else will only be more extreme."
