Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has hailed a letter from Hamas’s Political Bureau Chief Ismail Haniyeh on the movement’s readiness to end internal division and achieve reconciliation.
According to a presidential statement on Saturday, Secretary-General of the Central Committee of Fatah Movement Jibril Rajoub conveyed the letter to Abbas who welcomed what came in it on ending division, building partnership, and attaining national unity.
He decided to invite the Chairman of the Palestinian Central Elections Commission (CEC), Hanna Nasser, to discuss procedures for issuing the decrees related to holding the elections.
He expressed appreciation to Egypt, which has been sponsoring the reconciliation file, as well as Qatar, Turkey, Russia, and Jordan, all of which contributed to converging points of view and reaching an agreement.
Hamas has earlier pointed to new efforts to resume the national dialogue and complete the reconciliation process.
“There are internal and external contacts to make these efforts and steps a success and complete what we have started in our dialogue with our brothers in Fatah movement and the national and Islamic factions to fulfill the unity requirements,” Haniyeh stated on Friday.
He affirmed that the requirements for building national unity are accomplished through rebuilding the Palestinian leadership institutions, whether the PLO or the Palestinian Authority, on the basis of partnership and national consensus and in accordance with people’s will through free and fair elections.
National unity “is the cornerstone in confronting the Zionist occupation and its schemes aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause and suppressing our right to holy sites and of return.”
In Sep 2020, Fatah and Hamas agreed to hold free and fair elections gradually and according to proportional representation. They decided to first hold the general elections then presidential polls, followed by the election of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) national council. All are supposed to be held within six months.
However, on October 17, the PA announced it will resume coordination with Israel suspended in May over an Israeli plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.
Hamas slammed the decision and considered it a blow to reconciliation efforts. Yet the PA refused this accusation and stressed that unity is necessary to bolster the Palestinian position.
