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Abbas: U.S. gave assurances on votingOfficials won't confirm voting to be allowed in east Jerusalem
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YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSGAZA CITY (CNN) -- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday that parliamentary elections will proceed as scheduled January 25 after assurances that voting will be allowed in east Jerusalem. Abbas said those assurances came from U.S. authorities. But U.S. authorities did not confirm having said Israel would allow voting in east Jerusalem, which is populated mostly by Palestinians, and Israeli officials did not say whether it would be allowed. The Israeli Cabinet did agree to allow campaigning in east Jerusalem -- except for militant groups. Yehuda Mamman, spokesman for Israel's public security ministry, said the Cabinet made that decision Sunday. Abbas spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over the weekend. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Rice expressed her hope that both sides would resolve the dispute. "This is an issue that the Palestinians and the Israelis need to resolve," McCormack said at a news briefing in Washington Monday. Israeli authorities had previously warned they would not allow voting in east Jerusalem, which is under Israeli control, because Hamas is participating in the elections and is expected to gain a large number of votes. Israel and the U.S. State Department consider Hamas a terrorist organization, and it has carried out many attacks that have killed hundreds of Israeli civilians. "We have said more than once that in this election, the participation of Hamas is unacceptable," Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Monday. He said Hamas' participation violates international agreements, including the Oslo accords and the "road map" for Middle East Peace. "We believe that Hamas should not take part in this election," he said. "More than that it might be that the Hamas will win the election, something that will move us backwards 50 years." Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said, "No one wants to have problems, so we are working hard to find satisfactory answers to both sides." But Nabil Shaath, Palestinian deputy prime minister and information minister, said Israel is obligated under international agreements "to allow campaigning and elections for the legislative council to be held in Jerusalem." Israel allowed voting in east Jerusalem in 1996, the last time parliamentary elections were held, and during last year's presidential elections. Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi said elections must be allowed in east Jerusalem "so that the Palestinians can participate freely and in accordance with their needs. And of course we do not accept any further restrictions or conditions." As Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon lies sedated after a severe stroke, acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been leading the nation's decisions about how to handle the Palestinian elections. For the Palestinian Authority and its ruling party, Fatah, the elections threaten to expose Fatah's unpopularity -- especially in Gaza, which has had rampant lawlessness since Israel's pullout in September. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat, a Fatah member, said Sunday, "We are exerting maximum effort and determined to win these elections." "This is a democratic choice of Palestinians. But, mark my words, let those who are running for this election, including Hamas and anybody else, know that the democracy is a two-way street," he said. "Yes, you have the right to go to the ballots, choose your representatives. But those who participate in the elections must understand that these elections are the way to the one authority, the rule of law, and the one legal gun." The Bush administration, which has made the spread of democratic institutions in the Middle East a central foreign policy goal, has also expressed concerns about the popularity of Hamas. "Within Palestinian society, there is a fundamental contradiction that needs to be addressed," McCormack said Monday. "That is: You cannot have groups that retain an option on violence, on terror, yet say they want to participate in the political process. It's an irreconcilable difference. It needs to be resolved. You have to be one or the other." "But as we have said in the past, it is an issue for the Palestinian people -- the people -- to address." The Bush administration has been engaged in discussions with both sides. Deputy national security adviser Elliot Abrams and Assistant Secretary of State David Welch, who postponed a visit to the region after Sharon's stroke, will travel there this week. 
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