JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel's controversial Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman fanned the flames of a diplomatic feud on Monday when he cast doubt on the right of president Mahmud Abbas to represent the Palestinians.
"The more Abu Mazen's authority and legitimacy decline, the more he increases his demands and the more rigid he becomes in his attitude," Lieberman told Israeli public radio, referring to Abbas by his popular nickname.
"Today you have Fatah-land in Judea and Samaria (the Hebrew name for the occupied West Bank) and Hamastan in Gaza," Lieberman told Israeli radio, referring to Abbas's Fatah party and the Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza.
"And who exactly does Abu Mazen represent? Only half the people, at best."
Lieberman went on to mock remarks made by Abbas to an Egyptian newspaper that he should be replaced as foreign minister, calling it a "compliment."
"All of Abu Mazen's demands are simply a reflection of his distress and inability to conduct negotiations and spearhead a true political process," he added. "The demand for a (settlement) freeze is not legitimate either."
Lieberman's comments drew an angry response from the Palestinian leadership, which accused him of using "diversion tactics" to mask Israel's failure to halt settlement building in the West Bank.
"Israel?s foreign minister is hoping to deflect attention away from Israel?s refusal to implement its obligations," Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat said in a statement.
Monday's fiery exchange was the latest in a row that erupted over the weekend after Abbas told the Egyptian press that Israel would be better off without its outspoken foreign minister.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had "painted himself into a corner" by bringing Lieberman's ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party into his government, Abbas told Egypt's October weekly magazine.
The Palestinian president said that Tzipi Livni, the leader of the opposition and one of Lieberman's chief political adversaries, "would have been much better" as a coalition partner.
Livni was foreign minister under the previous government led by Ehud Olmert, who joined with Abbas to relaunch the peace process under US auspices at an international conference in November 2007.
Despite repeated invitations from Netanyahu, the Palestinians have said they will not hold any negotiations with him until Israel freezes all Jewish settlement activity in the West Bank in line with US demands.
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