Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pledged on Tuesday not to hold elections before the Hamas- held Gaza Strip and the Fatah-run West Bank are reunited.
"The elections won't be held unless the nation is united," Abbas said at a joint news conference with visiting Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer in Ramallah.
He underlined that any elections should be held in Gaza, West Bank and Jerusalem at the same time.
On Sunday, Abbas issued a presidential decree to "modify the electoral law" which adopted the fully proportional system to replace half proportional and half constituencies.
The adjustment was seen as favorable to Abbas' Fatah against the rival Hamas in the future elections. The Islamic movement won the parliamentary elections last January.
Hamas seized control of Gaza Strip after defeating Fatah movement and pro-Abbas security forces in mid June, prompting Abbas to form a new government led by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in the West Bank.
As for an international peace conference slated for November, Abbas reiterated that all nations involved in the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, especially Syria and Lebanon, should join the U.S.-sponsored conference to secure its success.
"We insist that the conference should enlist all concerned sides whether they are involved directly or indirectly," he said.
Alfred Gusenbauer, for his part, supported Abbas' demands that all regional players participate in the conference that the U.S. President George W. Bush called for.
The Austrian Chancellor also valued the biweekly meeting between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, saying they were "good message to explore realistic solutions to all outstanding issues."
Source: Xinhua
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