Abu Mazen has taken a giant step in his apparent bid to succeed Yasser Arafat as head of the PA. After receiving permission from Yasser Arafat to meet with several PA leaders in the past few days, he met with journalists this week and told them, "It's time to abandon all forms of violence and armed groups. Let's sit at the negotiating table. I believe this is the way to achieve peace." He was quoted in The Jerusalem Post as saying, "I believe that we made many mistakes, starting from the beginning of the intifada... It's possible that we went too far," and as saying that he believes that there should have been no shooting at Israeli targets from populated areas.