Abbas victory stirs hope for ME peace

Palestinian president-elect Mahmud Abbas and his advisers offer Munajat (prayers) seeking divine blessings for late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat during the celebration of his victory in Ramallah Sunday. PLO chairman Mahmud Abbas officially declared elected president yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

"A moderate man was elected, an intelligent man, an experienced man. Let's give him a chance," veteran Israeli peacemaker Shimon Peres told Israeli Army Radio.

"There is a new legitimate Palestinian leadership whose leaders definitely are against terror and war," Peres said.

In another sign of change in the Middle East, a new Israeli government led by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon but with Peres' center-left Labour Party a main partner, was expected to take office later in the day.

It will restore Sharon's parliamentary majority for the first time in six months and pursue a Gaza pullout plan, uprooting Jewish settlers for the first time from some land where Palestinians want a state. But any optimism for a new era of diplomacy will still be vulnerable to militants defying Abbas' calls to end armed struggle. Meanwhile, neither Palestinians nor Israelis show room for compromise on fundamental issues behind decades of conflict.

Abbas, 69, claimed victory on Sunday after exit polls showed he had won 65 percent of the vote in the presidential election in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem -- as big a margin as any that had been expected.

Turnout looked healthy despite a boycott call by Islamic militants, strengthening his mandate for change after Arafat's death at the age of 75 on Nov. 11.

He had promised to seek peace with Israel, but also to battle widespread corruption and revive the crumbling Palestinian Authority -- the legacy of four years of debilitating violence and Arafat's chaotic rule.

"Victory is beautiful but it will be more beautiful to fulfil the pledges," said Abbas, candidate of the dominant Fatah movement. "The smallest jihad (holy struggle) is over and the biggest jihad is ahead."

Israeli officials have said that Sharon, who accused Arafat of fomenting violence and shunned him for years, would seek a meeting with Abbas in days. But Abbas aides said he wanted assurances that it would be more than a photo opportunity.

"The main challenges are still ahead. Will he fight against terrorists and try to stop the bloody war against the state of Israel?" said Israeli Vice Premier Ehud Olmert.