"In the name of God, the Merciful and Compassionate,

Today marks the passing of more than one month since the absurd and detestable coup operation that Hamas Movement executed against the Palestinian legitimacy; more than one month after the major crime against the homeland and the people executed by Hamas Movement and its gangs and militias against the Palestinian people.

More than one month and still they continue as we speak today committing crimes and acts of killing against the Palestinian people, against whom they call their brothers, but they are not their brothers because they have not such acts against the occupation, but acted in this manner against members of their same religion and kind, and they continue with these crimes without blinking; more than that, they fabricate every day and hour and minute lies and misleading stories and they use all means to justify their acts and evade their doings and they try to invent things that even the devil couldn’t think of in terms of lies and distortion of facts; all this just to say that they were not wrong and that they didn’t commit any wrong acts but from time to time they say: We were forced to do that!! How can we imagine that they were forced to commit such crimes? Last week, they distributed an internal report of 22 pages and they try to teach their members and they are already educated on all kinds of lies and fabrications and claims to cover up on their crimes; this report which was published in the newspaper and you are all witnesses on what happened and what is happening and you can see how they lied and they covered their crimes under the pretext of religion and I say here that religion is innocent from such people. This is not Islam; this is not the conduct of Muslims; this is not the conduct of our grandfathers; they justify lies and fabrications and all this in order to achieve their low unethical goals.

You know my dear brothers that we exerted all efforts and we acted within the maximum extent of our capabilities in accordance with our conscience in order to avoid the Palestinian bloodshed and in order to prevent a civil war. I have been using all means in the past four years and everyone blamed me for my patience and tolerance, but I always wanted us not to engage in a civil war and I traveled to all Arab capitals to have dialogue, but unfortunately we reached the current situation and at the end we went to Mecca and the Holy Qa'ba to swear our oath there in front of the Qa'aba and its walls and while they were swearing their oaths in Mecca, they were violating their same oaths in Gaza and they were digging tunnels under the roads and under my house to cause the bombing and to prepare for the moments that they were planning; despite this, they deny and say that the explosives were set against Israel and that the CD is fake and forged; they want to hide their crimes in this way but lies have a short life cycle.

I said last time that one of their leaders and I confirm that it was leadership who sent me the CD and he told me that he fears God and I say here now that I received the CD from two different sources from Hamas twice from two different people and both said the same and they said: "don’t come to Gaza because the road is booby-trapped, and when I returned, I sent the CD to the so called Khaled Mash'al who said that I didn't call him and there is a guy who is still alive Samir Abu Eisheh and in the presence of Azzam al-Ahmad and he sent it to him and then Mash'al said: I have no idea about this; no one told me that there is a CD or information about a bombing operation against Abu Mazen.

I can't know of any place, religion or nation where lies and distortions are accepted; how did they learn all these lies and how can they justify the lies? I don’t know. But I say that this is not part of Islam.

They tried to deny that they started this, and then they said they were forced to do that. Then, they know and all methods and facts show that they violated Mecca Agreement, and they wanted to achieve their goals and they attained their goals and they have dug in their tombs with their own hands. Today, we call on the Palestinian Central Council for another session which is a continuation of the previous session and we call on the Council to have its say and to take its decision because it is the reference for the PNA and there are some who say that it is the alternative. No, the PCC is the reference and the sole decision maker and the sole party that has legitimacy on all matters pertaining to our Palestinian affairs as long as the Palestinian National Council cannot convene.

What was said by the Speaker of the PNC Saleem Za'noun on the matter of the Palestinian Constitution that has been ratified in the first reading in 2003 must be activated and it must be ratified so that we can be ready to receive the state if it comes and it will come and it must come. I will ask the Palestinian Central Council to call for a new term of the PNC and this requires preparation and setting up a date and all this can be left to either the PLO Executive Committee or to a PCC committee to be added to the PLO Executive Committee to discuss all matters and to study the matter and to decide the right time after it makes all necessary arrangements for the convening of the PNC so that we can activate the PLO.

Someone might come and say that there is the Cairo Agreement and I tell him that Hamas acts destroyed the Cairo Agreement and they committed this crime to wipe out Cairo Agreement and the dialogue now is between the factions under the PLO umbrella and the Palestinian Central Council and the Palestinian National Council are the concrete translation of this; therefore, we will not pay attention to them and we will not wait for instructions from Khaled Masha'l to agree or to refuse. No. Cairo Agreement is finished. And we are not ready to keep running after this kind of people.

From here, we also call on the Palestinian Central Council to issue decrees on early legislative and presidential elections and everyone here is in agreement on having elections based on the list and proportional representation. Therefore, we will call for this too and we will not wait for long to see those who are staying there to accept so that we can activate the PLO or activate our authority; they are not interested in anything other than their goals and illusions in their minds and they want to live in these goals and illusions forever.

Since the coup against the PNA, we have had a major task which is our people in Gaza, we know that they have been abducted like a hijacked plane, but we want to protect our people there and we don’t want them to suffer or to be punished; Hamas and these people must be punished.

We decided and this is the work of the government to continue with all means to provide them with the water, electricity and all humanitarian items to our people so that they don’t suffer from a crime that has nothing to do with them and for a mistake they didn’t commit and we are determined to do this.

Today, I heard from the Minister of Information that Hamas controlled the Electricity Company in Gaza so that funds can be paid to them and this places us in an extremely difficult situation because these funds come from the Europeans and are paid to the Israelis, but Hamas takes the revenues and spends them on its people; this is a matter that we have to study carefully and tackle and this is a difficult problem that we have to face, and we should not say that Hamas has to back off because Hamas will not back off.

There are other humanitarian issues, mainly the closure of Rafah Crossing where thousands of our people are waiting for the opening of the crossing and if we recall the past we can remember that when Israel decided on its unilateral withdrawal, we agreed with the Europeans and through the Americans and through them with the Israelis and the Egyptian brothers were a party too and the result was that the Europeans wont accept to be present at a crossing under the control of the Interior Minister headed by the so called Saeed Siam, and I said then that for the sake of our people, we are ready to send the presidential guard forces to the crossing on condition that the government agrees. At that time, the government agreed, and on the next day, the so called Hanieh came out and said: Abu Mazen took away my authorities. They agreed and we assumed the responsibility and we went to the crossing, and every day they used to invent a method to strike the crossing, including the fake battle that Hanieh invented. The Palestinian and for the first time in our history handed his passport to a Palestinian officer and was able to travel to Egypt in ten minutes. Now, Hamas desired to end the authority and the national security forces and the presidential guard forces and the crossing was closed. Who will open it? And they claim that Abu Mazen closed it.

I didn’t close the crossing. The Europeans withdrew and Egypt is on the other side and there is no one on the other side and we started to think about means to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people through finding another way to let the people enter and leave.

You remember that at a certain period and during the Hajj occasion and the Israelis were moody in closing and opening the crossing and they closed the crossing during the Hajj and we said then that the pilgrims can enter through Bet Hanoun Crossing and Oja and Areesh and the same thing can happen on their return, now whenever someone gets close to the crossing, Hamas fires rockets and then they say that Abu Mazen is closing the crossing; these people don’t care for the people; they only care for their people and subordinates and they don’t care about anything else.

With regards to those stranded at the Egyptian side of the crossing, the Prime Minister sent three ministers to Areesh to see how they can help the people there and to provide them with assistance, but Hamas main concern is not to see anyone moving close to the crossing and they fire rockets. Now, al-Qassam Brigades are threatening the Egyptian side on the need to open the crossing within 24 hours and Hamas calls for demonstration at the crossing at noon; this is anarchy committed and concerted by chaotic people and thugs.

In the past period, I took a series of constitutional measures and I challenge anyone to say that any of the measures was unconstitutional. The government is finished and we discharged the government and by the way, five of their ministers resigned and others resigned and the Basic Law says that if 8 ministers resign the government falls, and we took a decision to discharge the government and this is a legitimate decisions and we announced the state of emergency, and the government was established to run the affairs during the state of emergency, and when we called for the PLC to convene, they prevented people by force from attending the session and we asked them to hold the session because we are not against legitimacy; practically, they made themselves lose their legitimacy; according to the law, we cannot say that this council is illegitimate.

The measures taken so far are all in line with the Basic Law: the discharge of Ismail Hanieh on June 14, the declaration of the state of emergency on June 14, the formation of the government to run the affairs during the state of emergency, the resignation of the emergency government on July 13, the commissioning of Salam Fayyad to form a government and the request made by the PM elect to call for a PLC session.

We act with respect and we respect ourselves and we respect our law and constitution. Therefore, we cannot say that the PLC is illegitimate. Ahmad Bahar answered although the speech was not directed to him because his term is over and the previous session of the PLC that people were prevented to attend was to elect a new Speaker Office according to the Basic Law, but they interpret things they way they like and I don’t know how they bring their legal experts and legal interpretations.

The term of the PLC within a few days comes to respond to the request of the PM and our process will continue and our work and government will continue and we cannot let down our people or let them live in an authority, legal or constitutional void.

We have said and we repeat that there won't be dialogue with those who executed the coup. Many delegations came to us and the last delegation was the Arab Parliament delegation and we explained to them the conditions and the documents and brother Azzam al-Ahmad sat with them for 4 hours and after that they didn’t return. Many people come, and we say: when they end the coup and all its despicable results and when they respect the laws and decrees and regulations that were issued and when they accept the PLO as the sole and legitimate representative of our people as it is in all its decisions and commitments and laws and when they accept the one authority and one law and one legitimate weapons, then we will see. There is state in the world that has a legitimate weapon and an illegitimate weapon. I said in the past that we want elections that don’t exclude anyone because the right to vote is a right granted to every citizen regardless of his affiliation, ideology and thoughts. And since then I have been defending this and everyone blamed for but I am convinced in every step until matters reached the unbearable and they rebelled against their vows and they deviated from the path and they conspired and planned things secretly to end the PNA. Now, there won't be dialogue with them until they retreat from what they committed and to respect the matters I mentioned and then we will see.

In the recent meetings that were conducted with the Israeli side or during the phone call with US President Bush and the meeting with Javier Solana, the High Representative of the EU Foreign and Security Policy, we summarized matters in the following points:

First, we demand the start of the final status negotiations; we don’t want matters to continue talking about the crossings and funds and important violations only, there is a need to have dialogue over the final solution and everyone knows what is the final solution: it is an independent contiguous viable state within the 1967 borders with al-Quds al-Shareef as its capital and a just agreed upon solution to the refugees problem; this is what we said in Camp Davis and many said then: the traitors went to Camp David to sell the cause", then they discovered that those traitors are patriotic far more than other people. This has been our position in 2000 and this is our position in 2007.

We are discussing within this framework that in case the door for negotiations opens and it might be opened in the so called international conference or meeting. We have to wait and see until fall as many of the matters will be discussed so that we can go enlightened and so that the results can be positive.

The government now exercises its activities and all economic and internal security activities and the negotiations will be the jurisdiction of the PLO and the Presidency which will discuss these issues with international and local parties.

We have a promise on US assistance and I like to say that Europe offers assistance. Now we have been promised according to the speech of US President Bush an amount of 190 million US dollars for economic issues and we are waiting and if we get the funds, we welcome them and then we can start getting out of the crises, we will continue to pay full salaries God willing, this is what the Prime Minister promised me.

On Friday, 256 prisoners from our people and brothers from the various cities will be released, mainly our colleague brother Abdul Rahim Mallouh and the fact of the matter is that we have not studied or discussed the issue of the prisoners with the Israelis; I only know about Mallouh because the Israelis mentioned his name to me.

But we demanded the activation and implementation of the first Sharm al-Sheikh Agreement on forming a committee to agree on the criteria of those to be released through agreed upon criteria but so far we have not agreed on this.

On the issue of those deported from the Nativity Church, their issue is on the way to be solved. On the issue of the wanted men, all those whom the occupation agreed to stop tracking down will be within the framework of the PNA and they will be committed to the legitimacy and we appreciate their struggle and hard work and suffering and we tell them: now you have to take a rest; you are in our hearts and eyes and you will get all what you need; you are our sons and people. "