Abbas' call for early elections "Palestinian internal affair": Moussa

Arab League (AL) Secretary General Amr Moussa said on Saturday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' call for early presidential and parliamentary elections is a "Palestinian internal affair".

Moussa made the remarks in a statement issued on Saturday, in which he also expressed his confidence in Abbas' wisdom in dealing with the Palestinian issues.

Earlier on Saturday, the AL chief also strongly criticized the ongoing Palestinian in-fighting, saying that the clashes between the rival Palestinian factions would give the impression that the Palestinians were not paying the deserved attention to their basic cause against occupation.

Moussa urged the Palestinians to stop bloodletting as the street clashes may cause the reduction of the Palestinian factions ' credibility among the Arab public opinions.

Factional violence and clashes are running high in the Palestinian territories on Saturday evening in the wake of Abbas' call for early elections in a televised speech earlier in the day.

At least six people were injured as tens of thousands of Hamas supporters and members, who opposed the early elections, took to the streets in the Gaza Strip and had clashes with the security members loyal to Abbas' Fatah movement.

Meanwhile, the former ruling Fatah movement put off planned rallies to support the president's call for early elections, fearing that more violence would be ignited.

Abbas made the call for early elections after the talks between Hamas and Fatah over the formation of a national unity government collapsed.

The Hamas-led government took office in March, two months after it won the parliamentary election.

But the West and Israel have since imposed economic sanctions on the Hamas-led government as it refused to recognize Israel and denounce violence.

The failure in setting up a unity government to replace the incumbent Hamas-led one dashed Palestinian hopes that an end to Western sanctions on the current Hamas administration could be in sight.

Source: Xinhua