RAMALLAH, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday that an agreement on elections with Gaza-based factions is close, but the issue that remains is how to hold it in East Jerusalem.
"Now after overcoming the issue with Gaza, there remains another essential issue about East Jerusalem," said Abbas, emphasizing "the elections must be held in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza."
"If the residents of East Jerusalem were unable to participate in elections in their city, we will come back to this table to decide what can we do," the president said at the opening of a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) at his office in West Bank city of Ramallah.
Member of the PLO Executive Committee and Secretary General of the Palestinian People's Party Bassam Salhi told Xinhua that all factions have agreed to hold elections.
"But there are a few things that need to be completed before that, and the general framework is to hold both parliamentary and presidential elections," Salhi said.
Moreover, Abbas accused Israel of escalating its settlement activity and seeking annexation of the West Bank's Jordan Valley, threatening to cut off all ties and signed agreements with Israel and the United States.
The PLO's Executive Committee is the highest executive body in the organization which has been chaired by Mahmoud Abbas since the death of former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. Abbas has been elected as the president of the Palestinian Authority in Jan. 2005.
