The Foreign Ministry Wednesday issued a situation assessment to Israeli embassies worldwide that lambasts Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) and says that an agreement between Israel and the PA “will not be possible as long as Abu Mazen leads the PA.”

The document comes on the heels of remarks by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman who labeled Abbas “the biggest obstacle to an agreement between the Palestinian Authority and us.”

“It is clear today that chairman Abbas is motivated primarily by his will to leave behind a historic legacy and achieve personal gains,” the document says. “In view of the upheavals in the Arab world and the fates of [his] close friends – mainly the former presidents of Tunisia, Libya and Egypt – Abbas appears to be looking for a respectable exit from the political theater.”

“He therefore is focusing his energies on attempts to prove that he is the Palestinian leader who led to the creation of a state and achieved inner unity between Fatah and Hamas. This can explain his intransigent positions regarding Jerusalem, the refugees and the settlements, [which are] more extreme than those held by Yasser Arafat.”

The document states plainly that “Abu Mazen does not seek compromise solutions, but rather to purposely create friction and an escalation of the conflict with Israel.”

Abbas “prefers to sacrifice Palestinian interests to his historical legacy and personal future,” the Ministry states, and any attempt to continue negotiations with him is “destined to fail.”

A spokesman for the UN’s Special Envoy for the Peace Process told the PA-based Ma’an news agency that Lieberman’s statement “appears to be an attempt to delegitimize President Abbas.”