Dr. Salah Al-Bardawil, the spokesman for the Hamas parliamentary bloc, stated Sunday that PA chief Mahmoud Abbas's refusal to meet with Khaled Mishaal, the head of the Hamas political bureau, during his visit to Damascus is in compliance with American dictates imposed on him.

In a press statement, Dr. Bardawil underlined that this position of Abbas was unreasonable because it came after his fuzzy call for national dialog, noting that Abbas's initiative will not be active as long as it is being vetoed by Bush secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.

Regarding the expiration of Abbas's post as a PA chief next January, the spokesman explained that according to the law, the PLC speaker becomes the president of the PA for 60 day until the election of a new one.

Meanwhile, the Israeli Maariv newspaper revealed that the PA chief asked Israeli premier Ehud Olmert not to release Palestinian prisoners serving high sentences in any prisoner swap deal, considering this step, if happened, a death certificate for his authority.

In a report published on Sunday, the newspaper affirmed that Abbas told Olmert during closed talks that if Israel released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners charged with killing Israelis, his authority would be terminated.

The newspaper added that Abbas and his entourage told their Israeli counterparts that Israel would damage the peace process and kill their opportunities as Palestinian moderates to overcome the extremists in the Palestinian arena.

According to the newspaper, the PA expressed its fears many times in this regard to Israeli officials in the wake of the prisoner deal signed with the Lebanese resistance and the resumption of talks with Hamas about the Israeli captive soldier.

Israeli MPs Call For Prosecuting Arab MP Baraka For Reportedly Meeting Mishaal

A number of Israeli parliament members called for the prosecution of Mohammed Baraka, their Arab colleague MP, for reportedly holding a meeting with Khaled Mishaal, the leader of the Hamas Movement.

Press reports claimed that MP Baraka held an in-camera meeting with Mishaal on the sidelines of a seminar in Abu Dhabi on the 60th anniversary of the Nakba (disaster) or the usurpation of Palestine.

The sources said that discussions during the meeting were deep and serious.

Baraka, for his part, refused to comment on the meeting saying that he was preoccupied with restoring national unity to the Palestinian arena. The MP added that he was ready to exert all effort possible in order to restore that unity.

A fanatic member of the Israeli parliament and leader of the Mifdal party Zevulun Orlev said that he asked the Israeli government's judicial advisor Menachem Mazuz to interrogate Baraka. He was joined by other Israeli fanatic parties in this demand.

Baraka described Orlev as "racist", and added that he cared less about his "racist" remarks.