Palestinian President: We have no problem with Iran

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) said that we have no problem with Iran, but we demand that it deal with Palestinian legitimacy and not with certain factions.

 Abbas told reporters that since the late Iranian revolutionary leader Ali Khomeini’s return to the country, “relations between Iran and the Palestinians have been normal,” before Iran began to take a different direction by not dealing with Palestinian legitimacy, instead dealing with a faction. “We reject this,” he said.

“We have no problem with Iran, but we are asking it to deal with Palestinian legitimacy and not with a faction, because this leads to the division of Palestinian life,” Abbas said.
Abu Mazen stressed that the Palestinian Authority is keen to hold the Palestinian elections as soon as possible, stressing his confidence in the presence of international support for that endeavor.
“We are keen that the elections should be held as quickly as possible,” Abbas told reporters. “When we finish the legislative elections, we must hold presidential elections.”
On the obstacles to holding the elections, Abbas commented, “There are two problems, the first is to hear the approval of Hamas as the de facto ruler or the decision-maker in Gaza, and the second Jerusalem, as Israel controls it, and we are in contact with all these parties.”
“We will hold these elections if Hamas agrees and then contact the Israelis. Whatever their position, we are determined to hold the elections as soon as possible; we will hold legislative and then presidential elections,” Abbas said.
“We know that the whole world is standing by us, and we have heard from the United Nations, Europe, Moscow and others that they will support us with these elections and send international observers from all countries to monitor them,” he said.
In a related context, the Palestinian president said that “the prime minister of the Israeli caretaker government, Benjamin Netanyahu, does not believe in peace,” stressing that he rejected previous attempts by Russian President, Vladimir Putin, to arrange a meeting between him and Abbas.
Abbas told reporters, “We tried the Israeli leadership and tried a secret dialogue for the first time in 1992 for eight months in full confidentiality. We agreed to conclude the Oslo agreement to establish a Palestinian entity for a transitional government with a range of issues that could be discussed later, such as Jerusalem, refugees, borders, security and others.” However, a year later, Rabin was killed by the far right, at the instigation of some Israeli politicians, and the dialogue stopped, and then Netanyahu came, who we believe does not believe in peace and does not want it, so we cannot reach a solution with him. “.