An aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday that the current Israeli administration was unable to engage in serious negotiations with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
In an interview with Voice of Palestine radio, Ahmed Abdel Rahman, a spokesman for Abbas' Fatah movement, said that the Israeli government led by Ehud Olmert was bound by rightists who wait to topple the administration if it started real talks with the Palestinians.
Olmert's domestic standing has been sapped by corruption scandals and last year's war against Lebanese Hezbollah, and he faces opposition to concessions from hardline rightists in his fragile governing coalition.
"What is imminent, in my opinion, is that the international political progress will affect the internal Israeli situation and push for new elections," Abdel Rahman told the radio.
He explained that the results of Annapolis peace conference, where President Bush called for building a Palestinian statehood, "have built pressure on Israel and its political powers which are not interested in the international consensus" over creating the Palestinian statehood.
Abdel Rahman hailed the U.S.-hosted international conference held on Nov. 27, saying "Annapolis conference has proved to the world that the Palestinian cause was the central issue in the Middle East despite the Israeli accounts which lessen the point."
At the Annapolis conference on Mideast peace, Olmert and Abbas launched first formal peace talks in seven years, aiming to conclude a comprehensive agreement between Israel and the Palestinians by the end of 2008.
Earlier, two parties from Olmert's shaky ruling coalition had warned that they would leave should he make concessions to the Palestinians on core issues plaguing the decades-long conflict.
Source: Xinhua
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