On Thursday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held a video-conference meeting with rival Palestinian groups in order to form a united front over the United Arab Emirates’(UAE) and Israel’s August 13th agreement to normalise ties.
This rare meeting was held between Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, Islamic Jihad Secretary-General Ziyad al-Nakhalah, and the Palestinian President Abbas, covering the reach from Ramallah in the West Bank to Beirut.
Palestinians see UAE’s ‘normalisation’ deal with Israel, orchestrated by US President Donald Trump, as a betrayal that would most probably weaken a long-standing pan-Arab position that urges Israel to withdraw from occupied Palestinian territory.
After years of in-fighting, it is rare to have such high-level contacts between Hamas, a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist militant organization, and Abbas’s secular section of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
“Our meeting comes at a very dangerous stage, in which our national cause faces various plots and dangers,” Abbas said during the meeting.
“In order to stand together in the trench of confrontation and peaceful popular resistance to the occupation, I invite you here to agree on the formation of a national leadership.”
Hamas chief, Ismail Haniyeh, also agreed that it was imperative to have a unified strategy.
“We must succeed in ending the division and building a unified Palestinian position,” Haniyeh said. “At this stage, failure is forbidden.”
For over two years, Palestinian President Abbas has dismissed chances of talks with Trump’s administration, alleging the US administration of having a pro-Israel bias. Abbas even rejected Trump’s Mideast plan, proposed in January.