RAMALLAH, November 23, 2008 (WAFA)- The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Central Council started, Sunday, a two-day meeting in Ramallah. Participants are to discuss the negotiations with Israel, and the coming political stage after Obama’s election for the American presidency, and the coming general elections in Israel.

In the opening session, President Mahmoud Abbas said that, he would call for simultaneous presidential and legislative elections in the beginning of 2009, if the Palestinian national dialogue did not pay off, he stated, “we abide to the Palestinian national dialogue and its continuation, we will spare no effort to make it work, but, if did not pay off, I would have done all that I can, there will be, therefore, a presidential decree to launch the simultaneous presidential and legislative elections in the beginning of the next year, based on proportional representation.

On his side, Speaker of the Palestinian National Council, Saleem Za’anoun, said that the Palestinian reconciliation agreement of Cairo in 2005 came to reactivate the PLO, not to dismantle it. He added that there was the national reconciliation agreement, Mecca accord, the Yemeni initiative and President Abbas initiative, and yet, “we are sorrowfully disappointed by Hamas boycotting the dialogue sessions.”

He called to resume the dialogue from the point where it was stopped, and pointed that unity is the only means to stop the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian citizens.