[19] Abbas later entered graduate studies at the Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, where he earned a Candidate of Sciences degree[20][21] (the Soviet equivalent of a PhD).

"[28] In 1977, Abbas called for the repatriation of Arab Jews to their countries of origin, receiving the approval of Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, and Sudan.

[citation needed] It emerged in September 2016 that Abbas may have once worked for the KGB, as early as 1985 in Damascus, according to a document uncovered in the Mitrokhin Archive, where he is registered as agent "Krotov".

[31][32] By early 2003, as Israel and the United States refused to negotiate with Yasser Arafat, it was thought that Abbas would be a candidate for the kind of leadership role envisaged by both countries.

However, continuing violence and Israeli "targeted killings" of known leaders forced Abbas to pledge a crackdown in order to uphold the Palestinian Authority's side of the Road map for peace.

Abbas resigned as prime minister on 6 September 2003, citing lack of support from Israel and the United States as well as "internal incitement" against his government.

[37] On 13 January, Palestinians from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Hamas, and the Popular Resistance Committees launched a suicide attack on the Karni crossing, killing six Israelis.

[39] In February 2005, Abbas met with Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon at the Sharm el-Sheikh Summit to end the Second Intifada, and they both reaffirmed their commitment to the Roadmap for peace process.

In January 2006, in the context of Fatah's election loss and Hamas' presumed future one party government, Abbas said that he would not run for office again at the end of his term.

[51] The threat of joining the ICC and suing Israel for war crimes had been considered by Palestinian officials for years prior, but the move was seen as a diplomatic "last resort."

The decision came as Abbas's administration dealt with allegations of corruption and mismanagement, potential political challenges from rival parties and other Fatah members, and low approval ratings.

[50] In August 2015, Abbas announced his resignation as chairman of the executive committee of the PLO,[52] and subsequently called for an emergency meeting of the PNC to hold an election.

Abbas made the statement shortly after three Palestinian teenage boys were shot dead by Israeli troops in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.

[70] According to an International Crisis Group report, most Israeli officials "do not see [Abbas] as a peace partner but consider [him] a nonthreatening, violence-abhorring, strategic asset.

[72] Abbas retracted the statement the following day, acknowledging that the claim was not true and stating that he "didn't intend to do harm to Judaism or to offend Jewish people around the world".

[75] In December 2006, Abbas called for new legislative elections, to bring an end to the parliamentary stalemate between Fatah and Hamas in forming a national coalition government.

[76] In March 2007, a unity government was formed incorporating members of both Hamas and Fatah, with Ismail Haniyeh as prime minister and independent politicians taking many key portfolios.

[77] In June 2007, the European Union promised to resume direct aid to the Palestinian Authority, and Abbas dissolved the National Security Council, a sticking point in the defunct unity government with Hamas.

[78] That same day, the United States decided to end its fifteen-month embargo on the Palestinian Authority and resume aid, attempting to strengthen Abbas's West Bank government.

[91][92] In 2003, CBS News reported that Yasser Arafat, Abbas's mentor and predecessor, had diverted nearly $1 billion in public funds to "insure his political survival".

[93] In a 2006 report, the Congressional Research Service characterised the Palestinian public's dissatisfaction with institutional corruption as a factor that contributed to a win by Hamas in the January 2006 parliamentary election.

It noted that Fatah leaders had been accused of siphoning funds from ministry budgets, passing out patronage jobs, accepting favors and gifts from suppliers and contractors.

[94] The source for specific allegations against Abbas was one of Arafat's most trusted aides, Mohammed Rashid, accused by the PA of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars, who threatened to expose corruption scandals in the Palestinian Authority.

For many years, Rashid served as Arafat's financial advisor and was given a free hand to handle hundreds of millions of dollars that were poured on the Palestinian Authority and the PLO by the US, the EU and Arab donors.

[96] In his testimony before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Middle East and South Asia, Elliott Abrams stated that "Corruption is an insidious destroyer not only of Palestinian public finance but of faith in the entire political system.

They include monopolies on American-made cigarettes sold in the territories; USAID funding; public works projects, such as road and school construction, on behalf of the Palestinian Authority; and special preferences for retail enterprises.

[102] Some analysts believed the Abbas family would not proceed with the case as it would allow Foreign Policy and Schanzer to dig in too deep into the PA's secret finances and records.

[111] In 1984, he published a book titled The Other Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism (Arabic: Al-Wajh al-Ākhar: Al-'Alāqat aL-Sirriyya bayn al-Nāzīyya wa al-Sahyūniyya) based on the dissertation.

In the book Abbas dismissed as a "myth" and "fantastic lie" that six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust,[112][113] writing that the real figure was at most "890,000" or "a few hundred thousand".

[116]In August 2022, during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, Abbas was asked by an attending journalist if he would apologize for the 1972 Munich massacre of Israeli Olympic athletes by Palestinian terrorists.