Abbas recasts himself as key Palestinian negotiator

Once dismissed as a lame duck after his Fatah party was routed in January elections, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is angling to reemerge as the linchpin in the peace process with Israel.

But as he wound up a trip to the US Wednesday by meeting with President Bush, the Palestinian moderate's unity coalition blueprint with the ruling Hamas militant group may have fallen short of bridging the gap between Islamic militants and the international community. That could leave Mr. Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, in a precarious position when he returns home.

If Abbas fails to convince Hamas of the need to be more explicit in accepting international demands of recognizing Israel, honoring peace agreements, and renouncing violence, he could find himself back in a domestic showdown with Hamas rather than as the point man for negotiations with Israel, analysts say.

"Abu Mazen's options are limited because if he decides to resist the American pressures, he will be declared irrelevant," wrote Hani el-Masri in the Al Ayyam newspaper, "and if he accepts their conditions he will lose his credibility with the Palestinian public."

Abbas's credibility with the Palestinian public has been weak ever since his administration failed to fulfill campaign promises to reform or clean up corruption in the Palestinian Authority (PA). Hamas's landslide victory last January seemed to marginalize Abbas even more. But an international aid boycott of the Hamas-led government left the PA insolvent, and has left Abbas as the only Palestinian leader Western governments want to work with.

After months of the cold shoulder from Israel, the Palestinian leader met in New York Monday with Foreign Minister Tzippi Livni, who described the new dialogue as "important" and called for more talks. The bilateral relationship would be strengthened further if Israel and the Palestinians reach a compromise to swap abducted soldier Gilad Shalit in return for Palestinian security prisoners.

In Gaza, meanwhile, Hamas officials awaited word on whether the unity government plan would enable the Palestinian president to convince the US and Europe to lift an international aid boycott of the insolvent Palestinian Authority.

Abbas nearly convinced Hamas to sign on to a unity government platform that contained an endorsement of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, a recognition of previous peace agreements, and an Arab peace plan that implicitly recognized Israel. But the talks halted at the end of last week.

"We want to see what the feedback is," said Ahmed Yousef, a political aide to Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who reiterated Hamas's longstanding opposition to recognizing Israel. "We still have a lot of reservations on the recognition of Israel's right to exist. We are the ones who have a right to be recognized by Israel."

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