A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement denied on Saturday Israeli reports that the movement built pressure on Abbas regarding his participation in a U.S.-sponsored peace conference.
"We did not put any pressure on President Abbas or asked him to put conditions on his participation in the conference," spokesman Ahmed Abdel Rahman told Voice of Palestine radio.
"The Israeli press reports are meant to foil the conference in order to blame the Palestinians of the failure," Abdel Rahman added.
According to the reports, Fatah asked Abbas not to attend the conference before getting guarantees that it will come out with an essential deal or a breakthrough on resuming Palestinian statehood final-status talks.
Abdel Rahman explained his movement's policy was to activate the negotiations with Israel after getting international support and in parallel to the resistance.
In July, U.S. President George W. Bush called for an international meeting aimed to resume the deadlocked Israeli- Palestinian peace process after Abbas fired a short-lived coalition government with Hamas which took control of the coastal enclave in mid June.
Following the Gaza takeover, Abbas has been meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert almost regularly, hoping to reach a declaration of principles to be presented to the U.S.- sponsored conference, slated for November.
Source: Xinhua
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