Abbas to Invite Hamas, Palestinian Factions to Emergency Meeting in Cairo

Fatah Central Committee meeting (website)
Fatah Central Committee meeting (website)
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Abbas to Invite Hamas, Palestinian Factions to Emergency Meeting in Cairo

Fatah Central Committee meeting (website)
Fatah Central Committee meeting (website)

Azzam al-Ahmad, a member of the executive committee of the PLO and the central committee of the Fatah movement, has said that President Mahmoud Abbas will invite the general secretaries of the factions to attend an emergency meeting in Cairo.

The Palestinian leadership chose Egypt as a location for the meeting to bring all factions together, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

An informed source told Asharq Al-Awsat in remarks published Friday that all Palestinian factions will be invited, saying Abbas would attend the meeting as “the president of the Palestinian people.”

Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Ziyad Abu Amr had previously confirmed Egypt’s approval to host a meeting of the secretaries-general of the Palestinian factions.

He added that the meeting was aimed at “agreeing on a comprehensive national vision and uniting the Palestinian ranks.”

The Palestinian official also stressed “the importance of the role played by the brotherly Arab Republic of Egypt in defending the rights of the Palestinian people.”

The Palestinian factions, including Hamas, did not immediately comment on the invitation, which would be sent in light of differences that emerged in the West Bank between the Fatah and Hamas movements, after mourners attacked members of the Fatah Central Committee in the Jenin cemetery on Wednesday.

Videos spread on social media showed mourners interrupting a speech by Abbas’ deputy, Mahmoud Al-Aloul, before the situation became tense and some chanted for the expulsion of Palestinian officials.

Israeli newspapers headlined that the Palestinians in Jenin had expelled Abbas’ deputy. Fatah accused Hamas of being behind the incident, which caused widespread tension and controversy that spread to social media, before gunmen from Fatah in Nablus, in the northern West Bank, forced the owners of Hamas shops to close their businesses.

Al-Ahmad told Voice of Palestine radio on Thursday that the leadership of the Hamas movement has launched a campaign to stop the meeting from taking place. He described the incident at the Jenin camp as being “consistent with [Hamas’] approach of betrayal and shedding Palestinian blood.”

On Thursday, the Fatah Central Committee issued a statement, saying that it would “not allow those with external agendas to tamper with the unity of our people, and will not hesitate to cut off the roots of sedition.”



US to Eventually Reduce Military Bases in Syria to One, Says US Envoy

A US patrol in Qamishli’s countryside in Hasakah on April 20, 2022. (AFP)
A US patrol in Qamishli’s countryside in Hasakah on April 20, 2022. (AFP)
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US to Eventually Reduce Military Bases in Syria to One, Says US Envoy

A US patrol in Qamishli’s countryside in Hasakah on April 20, 2022. (AFP)
A US patrol in Qamishli’s countryside in Hasakah on April 20, 2022. (AFP)

The United States has begun reducing its military presence in Syria with a view to eventually closing all but one of its bases there, the US envoy for the country has said in an interview.

Six months after the ouster of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, the United States is steadily drawing down its presence as part of Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), a military task force launched in 2014 to fight the ISIS.

"The reduction of our OIR engagement on a military basis is happening," the US envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, said in an interview with Türkiye's NTV late on Monday.

"We've gone from eight bases to five to three. We'll eventually go to one."

But he admitted Syria still faced major security challenges under interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose coalition toppled Assad in December.

Assad's ouster brought an end to Syria's bloody 14-year civil war, but the new authorities have struggled to contain recent bouts of sectarian violence.

Barrack, who is also the US ambassador to Turkey, called for the "integration" of the country's ethnic and religious groups.

"It's very tribal still. It's very difficult to bring it together," he said.

But "I think that will happen," he added.

The Pentagon announced in April that the United States would halve its troops in Syria to less than 1,000 in the coming months, saying the ISIS presence had been reduced to "remnants".