Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stressed on Tuesday that the intended Israeli withdrawal from any occupied part of Palestinian territories is a dream that every Palestinian was waiting for it to become true.

In his speech that he addressed before the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), Abbas tackled several issues related to the peace process, the intended Israeli withdrawal, the current internal security situation and the truce with Israel that was accepted by Palestinian factions in Cairo last March.

He said that he hopes there will be a smooth withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and militants refrain from attacking the Israeli army and the settlers while they are leaving and evacuating the Gaza Strip.

The Israelis want to leave, why we should stop them. We should appear before the world with a civilized image and make the world says the Palestinian people deserve life and deserve freedom, Abbas urged.

Abbas slammed the Palestinian militants groups for firing homemade rockets at Israel and at Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip, saying regardless of the goals that these rockets would achieve, look at the consequences.

"I don't want to talk about whether firing these rockets is important or not important, but I wanted to talk about the consequences. No one of us could forget last week's tragedy when a father and his son were killed of a rocket," Abbas warned.

The withdrawal and evacuation of settlements would begin on Aug. 15 and will be implemented within four weeks, said Abbas, adding that there are lots of answers related to the borders, terminals and airport we haven't received yet.

But Abbas asserted that the Palestinian security forces are exerting efforts and receives support from Egypt in order to develop the performance of the security forces during and after the withdrawal.

President Arafat is not with us to see the fruit he and his people will pick up, said Abbas, asking the PLC members to stand one minute silence to remember Arafat.

He said that he really hope that the Palestinian dream will become truce to be an introduction to more achievements and more Israeli withdrawals that "would finally bring us to the independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital".

Abbas also previewed the history of the Israeli unilateral disengagement plan that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had presented on April 14 last year before US President George W. Bush in Washington.

Sharon "blew up a bomb" at the White House when he presented his plan, some of the world leaders considered the plan as a great achievement, and some others said that the plan could be full of mines, said Abbas.

He added that when Sharon presented his plan before the Americans, he was aiming at getting the US approval to keep several settlements blocks in the West Bank and annex them to the state of Israel.

Abbas insisted that there has to be isolation between the withdrawal and the guarantees Sharon got from the Americans, adding this withdrawal should be a beginning and it should be fair with the legitimate rights of the Palestinians.

He said that the Palestinians are afraid that Gaza would be first and last Israeli withdrawal and would be isolated from the West Bank.

Meanwhile, Abbas announced that the parliamentary elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip will be held on January 2006 after both the basic law and the elections law that were passed by the PLC few weeks ago will be implemented

Abbas said that he will issue a presidential decree soon after the two laws, basic law and elections law, are ready, where a specific date for holding the elections on January would be set up.

Source: Xinhua