Israel

January 2005 | Risk Summary

As expected, former Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) won the Palestinian presidential elections in January. Israel agreed to pull back troops to allow the first Palestinian elections in eight years to take place, although restrictions on polling and campaigning in the extremely sensitive disputed territory of East Jerusalem highlighted the potential stumbling block that the Jerusalem question poses to future negotiations. Abbas, an architect of the Oslo peace accords, is expected to hold peace talks with Israel, but may first need to consolidate his power over his own party and

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