TEL AVIV - Israel kept mum on Friday on Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas's announcement that he would not seek re-election, but officials said Tel Aviv is keen on Abbas remaining in office.
The government has refrained from official comment on Abbas's announcement late on Thursday that he would not stand in the Palestinian general elections he has called for January.
"This is an internal (Palestinian) affair," Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told public radio. "We don't interfere in others' internal affairs."
"But it is evident that Israel and the US are interested in" working with his type of leadership, he said.
A senior Israeli official said that hardline Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sees Abbas "as a partner for peace."
The popular Ynet news website quoted another anonymous official as saying: "It's in Israeli interest to have Abbas stay in office."
"Netanyahu does not want Abu Mazen (Abbas) to leave," another told the Maariv newspaper.
The left-leaning Haaretz said that Israeli President Shimon Peres had telephoned Abbas a day before the latter's announcement to try and talk him out of his decision.
"If you leave the Palestinians would lose their chance for an independent state," the daily quoted Peres telling Abbas. "The situation in the region would deteriorate. Stay, for the Palestinian people's sake."
Peres's spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.
Most of the Israeli press however dismissed Abbas's announcement as a tactical manoeuvre.
"The Abu Mazen Threat Show," said a headline in Maariv.
"This announcement is a tactical step," an Israeli official told the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot daily.
Palestinian officials said that Abbas's decision to not run in the January election was motivated by his disappointment with US efforts to halt illegal Israeli settlement construction, which he had said must happen before peace talks can resume.
Abbas's frustration was said to have peaked when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised an Israeli proposal for some settlement limits as "unprecedented," after months of Washington demanding a full freeze.
Clinton reacted to Abbas's announcement by saying she would work with him in "any capacity."
Churches urge 'resistance' to Israeli settlements