Abbas: Al-Qaida not in Gaza, West Bank
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-17 21:59

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas denied Thursday that al-Qaida cells were operating in Gaza or the West Bank, and he dismissed U.S. and Israeli demands that the militant group Hamas should be barred from running in parliamentary elections.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas gestures during a interview for the Associated Press Television News on the side lines of the World Summit on the Information Society at the convention center in Kram, 10 kms (6 miles) north of Tunis, Tunisia, Thursday Nov. 17, 2005.[AP]

Abbas, speaking to AP Television News in what he said was his first interview in English since taking office a year ago, rejected claims made this week by Israeli President Moshe Katsav that "terror groups, including some al-Qaida cells, have formed" in the Gaza Strip since Israel's pullout in August.

Katsav, who spoke in Italy, is the latest senior Israeli official to make that claim.

"I don't think that there are cells of al-Qaida in Gaza," he said in an interview on the sidelines of the World Summit on the Information Society.

Abbas also said he was optimistic that a new plan on policing Gaza's borders would work, particularly with help from European monitors at the crossings.

The deal was sealed Tuesday after 20 weeks of negotiations. The monitors will act as mediators between the Israelis, who will keep tabs on the Gaza-Egypt border via closed-circuit television, and the Palestinians running the crossing.

"We can do it if the Israelis help us," he said.

Abbas also dismissed U.S. and Israeli objections to members of Hamas running for office in January's Palestinian parliamentary elections. Both nations consider Hamas, which opposes the existence of Israel, a terrorist group.

Suicide bombings and other attacks claimed by Hamas have killed hundreds of Israelis during the past five years of violence. Israel, in turn, has repeatedly struck back at the group, killing much of its senior leadership.

Israel wants Abbas to disarm Hamas and other militant groups, but Abbas prefers to try to co-opt the radicals by including them in the nascent political process.

"We told the Americans and we told the Israelis that Hamas is a part of the Palestinian people and we adopted democracy as a state for our life," he told AP Television News. "Democracies do not pick and choose. The Palestinian people understand they ... have the right to elect and have the right to be candidates."

He said Hamas members seeking office should not be a concern of the United States or Israel.

"I don't think Hamas is running for election in Israel or America," he said.