ISRAEL: PALESTINIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE MARWAN BARGHOUTHI SENDS A MESSAGE FROM HIS PRISON CELL SAYING HE IS STILL CONSIDERING HIS CANDIDACY

Record ID: 400693

  • Title: ISRAEL: PALESTINIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE MARWAN BARGHOUTHI SENDS A MESSAGE FROM HIS PRISON CELL SAYING HE IS STILL CONSIDERING HIS CANDIDACY
  • Date: 7th December 2004
  • Summary: (W4) TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (FILE - 2003) (REUTERS) 1. MARWAN BARGHOUTHI WEARING HANDCUFFS AT COURT APPEARANCE 0.20 (W4) BEER SHEBA, ISRAEL (DECEMBER 7, 2004) (REUTERS) 2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARAB ISRAELI MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT TALEB ASSANA STANDING BEFORE REPORTERS AFTER MEETING WITH BARGHOUTHI /ASSANA SAYING, THAT BARGHOUTHI IS CONSIDERING H
  • Embargoed: 22nd December 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TEL AVIV; BEER SHEBA, ISRAEL
  • Country: Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVA581GKPGXXJ81JRTJ9V5CT8I0R
  • Story Text: Barghouthi sends mesaage from prison saying he is
    considering his candidacy for Palestinian President .


    Palestinian presidential candidate Marwan Barghouthi
    has sent a message from his prison cell saying that he is
    still considering whether he will in fact run in the
    upcoming elections. Israeli Member of Parliament Taleb
    Assana, an Arab-Israeli, visited Barghouthi and gave the
    statement when he left the prison on Tuesday (December 7).

    "I want to say that he says that he feels very
    responsible for the unity of the Fatah organization and he
    will not take any steps that will make a divide. I think
    that he feels very responsible for the unity of the Fatah
    organization and because of that, I'm optimistic over the
    decision that he will take in the future," said Assana.

    Recent polls have shows that former prime minister
    Mahmoud Abbas and jailed grassroots leader Barghouthi are
    running neck-and-neck in the Palestinian presidential
    election race to replace Yasser Arafat
    According to the survey, the majority of Palestinians
    believed Abbas was the candidate most capable of reaching a
    peace agreement with Israel, imposing law and order in the
    West Bank and Gaza and improving the local economy.

    Barghouthi was widely seen as the candidate who would
    be least likely to compromise over a right of return for
    Palestinian refugees following the death of Arafat on
    November 11. Many in the Fatah party have been pressuring
    the jailed Barghouthi not to run.

    The international community favours Abbas as a
    potential peacemaker. He has called for an end to armed
    conflict with Israel.

    Barghouthi, a legislator and a leader of the
    Palestinian uprising, is serving five life terms in Israeli
    prison after being convicted of ordering attacks that
    killed Israelis.

    He has denied the charges, saying he is a political
    leader. Barghouthi's independent candidacy has angered
    veteran leaders of the mainstream Fatah faction to which
    he and Abbas belong and raised fears it would split the
    group and strengthen rival Islamic militant group Hamas.
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