President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel yesterday of trying to avoid peace talks and push Palestinians into civil war by insisting that radicals be disarmed ahead of any negotiations on statehood.

Abbas said in a televised address that Israel was acting as though it had “no peace partner”, shortly after a visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meant to encourage peacemaking following Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

It was not the first time that Abbas had said that disarming radicals could risk civil war, but it was some of his strongest criticism of Israel since the Gaza pullout in September.

He accused Israel of “a determination that Palestinians pass through a civil war” because of its insistence that negotiations cannot start before the disarming of radical groups waging an uprising since talks failed in 2000.

His speech marked the anniversary of a Palestinian declaration of independence from exile in 1988. Palestinians are meant to start disarming militants under a US-backed peace “road map”. Israel also says it is committed to that plan, though it has failed to meet its own pledge to freeze settlement building in the West Bank.

Powerful factions, such as Hamas, say they will not give up their weapons and have occasionally clashed with security forces. Some also have strong popular support because of their fight against Israel. Most groups agreed with Abbas to abide by a truce with Israel, though violence has flared sporadically.

Israeli officials reiterated that there could be no statehood talks before armed groups are disarmed. “These conditions are clear and these are their obligations from the first stage of the road map,” Zeev Boim, Israel’s deputy defence minister, told Israel Radio. During her visit, Rice renewed US pressure on Abbas to act against the armed groups. She also pushed Israel on the question of settlement building.

“(Israel) is seeking to impose a very dangerous option, and that is a long-term solution based on setting up a state with provisional borders controlled by the Israelis, divided by settlements into isolated cantons,” Abbas said.

In another speech, Abbas said he believed a deal could be possible. “If we have an Israeli partner willing to engage in these negotiations, mark our words we do not need more than 6 months to conclude an historic permanent status treaty,” he said.

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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. (REUTERS)