Abbas threatens to quit over Fatah crisis

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas threatened Saturday to resign if the political crisis in the Fatah movement is not resolved.

The crisis already led senior Fatah members, including Mohammed Dahlan and Jibril Rajoub, to leave the movement for an independent parliamentary list, al-Mustaqbal (the Future,) which will compete against the Fatah in the upcoming elections.

In the past few days and ever since the announcement on the new party, talks have been held between the two factions in a bid to return the senior members to the Fatah. The talks, however, have so far failed.

The negotiations were accelerated following Hamas' victory in the last round of the Palestinian Authority's local elections, in a bid to unite the movement and prevent a similar scenario from taking place in January's general elections.

Marwan Barghouti, the former Tanzim leader in the West Bank, who heads the Fatah list, has asked that his name be removed from the list following his move to the top of the new list.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3186053,00.html