PA official fears Israeli 'sabotage'
During a news conference at the Palestine Center, Erekat refers several times to the possibility of Israeli sabotage and assassination
Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat raised concerns Tuesday that Israel might try to sabotage Palestinian elections in January, or even resort to assassination to upset balloting.
After talks at the White House and with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the longtime associate of the late Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat said thousands of monitors were needed to oversee the elections set for January 25.
"We want the American administration to help us, to send as many observers as possible, people to help us in the training and making sure that the Israelis don't sabotage or obstruct those elections," he said in a doorway of the State Department after meeting with Rice.
Later, at a news conference at the Palestine Center, Erekat referred a half-dozen times to the possibility of Israeli sabotage and twice to assassination.
"We want the United States to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with making sure elections take place... And to protect us from any Israeli effort to sabotage the elections with assassination," he said.
In response to a reporter's question, Erekat, who is a top Palestinian negotiator, said he did not have any evidence Israel was contemplating assassinations, but said Israel was refusing to cooperate in setting the stage for elections.
For example, Erekat said Israel was resisting registration of Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem, which he said would become the capital of a Palestinian state in a final peace accord that also would remove Israel from the entire West Bank.
Erekat defends right of Hamas members
Political turmoil in Israel will delay a start of peace negotiations, Erekat said, but "we don't have a vacation from what needs to be
done" to improve the Palestinian economy with a functioning airport and harbor in Gaza, release of prisoners held by Israel and a halt to all Israeli construction in Jewish settlements on the West Bank.
On another touchy point, Erekat defended the right of members of Hamas, like all Palestinians who meet age and other legal requirements, to run in the elections.
The State Department has condemned Hamas as a terrorist organization and has urged Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas for months to dismantle such groups in Palestinian-held areas.
According to the department spokesman Sean McCormack, Rice "underlined in this meeting, as she has before, that it's important for Palestinian people to deal with the fundamental contradiction of having groups that want to keep one foot in the camp of terrorism and one in the camp of governance."
"You can't do that," he said. "Government has to have the sole right to use force to maintain public order as well as to fight terrorism."
McCormack said it was up to the Palestinians to deal with the issue of Hamas and other violent groups, but said "the secretary underlined again her position on that issue."
Erekat, in a visit of little more than one day, also held talks with officials in Vice President Dick Cheney's and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley's offices and with congressional aides.
