PARIS (PIC)– PA chief Mahmoud Abbas has called for the deployment of international forces in the Gaza Strip in preparation for holding early general elections.
Abbas addressing a press conference along with French external affairs minister Bernard Kouchner in Paris Friday night said that he informed Israeli premier Ehud Olmert of his proposal.
He said that he also conveyed his idea to French president Nicolas Sarkozy and UN secretary general Ban Key-moon.
For his part the French minister said that the idea would be studied but he opined that deployment of those forces would not be an alternative to the peace process.
Abbas’s idea is not welcomed in the Palestinian street which believes that the real mission of those forces would be defending Israel’s security rather than protecting Palestinian citizens in face of Israeli aggressions.
Observers opined that Abbas’s foreign tour targeted isolating the Hamas Movement and seeking international cover for his refusal for any dialogue with Hamas despite growing Arab demands for such dialogue.
For its part the armed wing of the Hamas Movement the Qassam Brigades on Saturday refused the deployment of international forces in Gaza.
It said in a press release that those troops would be dealt with as an occupation force describing their deployment in Gaza as a “flagrant intervention in Palestinian internal affairs” and would deal a blow to national unity.
