PA, PLO dismiss Lieberman attacks on Abbas

Ma'an
"By criticizing the presidency of Mahmoud Abbas, Israel’s Foreign Minister is hoping to deflect attention away from Israel’s refusal to implement its obligations under the Road Map, including a comprehensive settlement freeze," Dr Erakat said in a statement.

"I doubt such diversion tactics will wash with the international community, and certainly do not deserve much attention from those of us who are committed to peace," the top PLO official added, noting that he stands ready to negotiate with an Israeli government committed to peace.

...Both officials were responding to the latest in a war of words with Lieberman, who just one day after Israel's prime minister invited Palestinians for peace talks said Abbas "is not really legitimate," Israel Radio reported, in response to the president's suggestion to an Egyptian newspaper that Kadima's Tzipi Livni would make a better foreign minister.

"Abu Mazen [Abbas] is not really legitimate, and this is why he has offered a new demand, or advice, to replace Lieberman with Tzipi Livni," the foreign minister said, apparently in the third person. "I definitely view this piece of advice as a great blessing."

"His demand to halt construction in the settlements is only an expression of his distress and inability," added Lieberman, who himself resides in the illegal Israeli settlement of Noqedim, near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank...

Lieberman's reaction seemed particularly strong and Abbas' suggestion relatively benign compared to remarks by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who said less than a month ago in no uncertain terms that the foreign minister should be replaced, adding, "Sometimes when I hear what he says I have the urge to pull out my hair."

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