Roundup: Abbas calls on PLO to reconsider PNA functions

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the Central Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to reconsider the functions of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on Wednesday.

The PLO Central Council started a two-day meeting on Wednesday in the West Bank city of Ramallah. In the speech, Abbas told the council that the current situation should be studied about "if we have an authority or not."

The PLO Central Council is the second highest Palestinian political body after the Palestinian National Council (PNC), or the parliament in exile.

"We have to reconsider the functions of the authority and whether we are influential or not," Abbas told the Central Council members.

The PNA was established according to a transitional peace agreement signed in Oslo, Norway, between Israel and the PLO in 1993.

Earlier, senior Palestinian officials announced that the meeting of the Central Council of the PLO would tackle several issues related to the ties with Israel, including a halt of security cooperation and the signed economic agreements.

The Palestinian idea to discuss these issues was a response to Israel's decision in early January to withhold the Palestinian tax revenue dues.

Israel made the decision in reaction to Palestinians joining 20 international treaties and agencies, including the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Hague.

According to the Oslo agreement, Israel controls all Palestinian crossings and collects tax revenues from the Palestinian imports. Those tax revenue dues represent two third of the Palestinian budget.

In his speech, Abbas accused Israel of violating all the signed peace agreements. "Instead of implementing the deals, Israel used military actions against us," he said.

Abbas asserted that he intended to sue Israel in the ICC, where the Palestinians will officially become a member in the ICC on April 1.

Abbas said he rejected an offer to stop submitting a suit against Israel in the ICC in exchange for the release of the tax dues.

Meanwhile, Abbas stressed that the Palestinians are not intervening into the internal affairs of Israel, which is going to hold parliamentary elections on March 17.

"Any party is legally elected by the Israeli people will be considered a partner and we will negotiate with whatever its policy is," Abbas said.

He also expressed commitment to the choice of negotiations with Israel, referring to the recognition of several European parliaments of a Palestinian state. "This recognition can never be an alternative to the bilateral talks with Israel to resolve all the remaining issues."

He held Israel responsible for the current stalemate in the Middle East peace process, and called on the international community to boost its intervention to end violence and terrorism in the entire region.

"The ball now is at Israel's side in order to achieve peace with 57 Arab and Islamic countries in accordance to the Arab peace initiative issued in 2002," Abbas said. The direct U.S.-sponsored peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians stopped last year without any tangible progress.

Internally, Abbas called on Islamic Hamas movement, which has been controlling the Gaza Strip since 2007, to officially declare a clear stance about holding the presidential and parliamentary elections in the Palestinian territories.

"In order to issue a decree calling for holding the elections, it (Hamas) should clearly say that it accepts it," said Abbas, who accused Hamas of obstructing the process of reconstruction in the Gaza Strip "because it doesn't want to transfer its control on crossing points to the unity government." Endit