Abbas insists will hold elections, truce threatened
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RAMALLAH, West Bank  - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas vowed on Monday to press on with early elections as a truce between his security forces and the Hamas government threatened to unravel in the Gaza Strip.
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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Militant groups behind many suicide bombings dismissed a call from interim Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday to halt attacks in the days leading up to a Jan. 9 election to replace Yasser Arafat.
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Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas,  frontrunner to succeed Yasser Arafat, said Wednesday that he  expected negotiations on Israel's plan to withdraw from the  Gaza Strip after Palestinian elections next month.
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RAMALLAH, West Bank  - Mahmoud Abbas, a  Palestinian moderate aiming to talk peace with Israel, was on  course for a landslide victory in an election for a successor  to Yasser Arafat Sunday, exit polls showed.
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged Hamas Islamists on Monday to agree to early elections and to open a "new page" by ceding control of the Gaza Strip and holding reconciliation talks with his Fatah faction.
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RAMALLAH, West Bank  - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday he would call for early elections despite Hamas's rejection of the plan.
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President Abbas called Saturday for early elections. Hamas says it won't participate.
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Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on  Wednesday vowed a crackdown on armed groups operating in  Palestinian areas in order to smooth the way to a Jan. 9  election for a successor to Yasser Arafat.
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RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is considering calling presidential and legislative elections to strengthen his position, a top aide said yesterday, a move that could deepen the split between the West Bank and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called Saturday for elections to end his violent standoff with Hamas &#151; a gamble that Palestinians will back him as he seeks to weaken the Islamic militants, avoid civil war and keep momentum for peace overtures with Israel.
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A local Hamas leader indicated Monday the militant group would not attack Israelis during the Palestinian presidential campaign and would consider a formal truce with
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Militant groups have agreed to suspend attacks as they near a formal truce deal with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and await Israel's response, a senior Palestinian official said Monday.
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JERUSALEM, Dec. 9 -- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is inclined to call early elections, including for his own office, to end the political and economic crisis in the territories, Palestinian officials said Saturday.
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Palestinian militants signaled on Sunday  they would help maintain calm in Gaza for at least a month but  denied Israeli reports they had agreed to a cease-fire at the  behest of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' decision to call early presidential and parliament elections is fraught with legal and political difficulties. Independent experts have said he is on shaky legal ground, and the ruling Hamas Party says it will challenge him every step of the way.
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Mahmoud Abbas is a confident man, certain of a landslide victory on January 9 in the Palestinian Authority&#39;s presidential elections.
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RAMALLAH, West Bank  - Victory by Mahmoud Abbas,  an advocate of non-violence, in Palestinian presidential  elections stirred hopes Monday he could pursue peacemaking  Israel said must start with a crackdown on militants.