Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met with Qatari head of state Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani in Doha on Monday, the official WAFA information company mentioned in an announcement.
WAFA mentioned the leaders mentioned “problems with mutual curiosity,” however stories mentioned Abbas was trying to get Qatar to make use of its affect with the rival Hamas group to agree to carry elections.
“The president praised Qatar’s place in assist of the Palestinian folks proper to regain their undiminished and full rights,” Abbas’s workplace mentioned in an announcement.
The go to to Qatar was Abbas’s third state go to because the starting of the coronavirus pandemic in March. The growing older Palestinian Authority president — lengthy sure to Ramallah attributable to well being considerations — visited Amman and Cairo on the finish of November.
Tamim affirmed “his nation’s place in assist of the Palestinian problem and the Palestinian folks proper to regain their rights and set up their unbiased state, with Jerusalem as its capital,” the Qatari head of state mentioned in an announcement carried by WAFA.
The go to additionally comes amid the latest signing of normalization agreements between Israel and 4 Arab nations, strikes bitterly rejected by the Palestinians.
Tamim, nevertheless, tweeted that he “harassed the significance of Palestinian unity.”
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas meets with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha on August 9, 2018. (Wafa/Thaer Ghnaim)
In line with a report by Israel’s Kan Public Broadcaster, the Palestinian premier was in Doha to stress Hamas into accepting holding the primary nationwide Palestinian elections in 14 years on Fatah’s phrases.
Abbas’s Fatah get together and Hamas have been at loggerheads because the terror group ousted the PA from the coastal enclave in 2007. Many efforts to reconcile the 2 sides have failed.
Senior Fatah officers have publicly acknowledged their desire for legislative elections, adopted by presidential elections, whereas Hamas has insisted on holding each concurrently. Abbas has previously traveled to Qatar prior to now searching for to debate holding elections.
Qatar has been a key participant in mediating ties between Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.
It performed host to Hamas leaders in its capital; former Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal settled in Doha in 2012 after fleeing the nascent civil warfare in Syria.
However the Qatari authorities additionally cultivates ties with the Israeli authorities, and Doha has reportedly mediated short-term ceasefires between the 2 events on a number of events. Qatar can be chargeable for sending tens of thousands and thousands of in humanitarian support into the Gaza Strip.
Many earlier makes an attempt to finish the long-running rift between the West Financial institution-based Fatah and Gaza-based Hamas terror group have led to failure. Most observers price it — and the Palestinian nationwide elections they might entail — as unlikely to occur this time round.
A number of rounds of unity talks this summer season in protest of an Israeli plan to annex elements of the West Financial institution reportedly went properly, with either side committing themselves to carry nationwide Palestinian elections “throughout the subsequent six months.”
HE President of Palestine left Doha after a working go to to the nation. HE and the accompanying delegation had been seen-off upon departure at Doha Worldwide Airport by Minister of State for International Affairs and Ambassador of Palestine to Qatar.
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However negotiations ended unceremoniously this previous November when Ramallah mentioned it was restoring ties with Israel following the victory of US President-elect Joe Biden over President Donald Trump. To make issues worse, the change in coverage was introduced as Fatah Secretary Common Jibril Rajoub was sitting down for talks with the Hamas terror group in Cairo.
Abbas was accompanied by senior PA minister Hussein al-Sheikh, intelligence chief Majed Faraj, and PA International Minister Riyad al-Maliki. The 4 officers landed in Doha on Sunday night time earlier than returning to the West Financial institution on Monday.
Qatar can be coping with its personal points. It has additionally been engaged in three-year wrestle with its neighbors — particularly the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia — who’ve blockaded the nation and sought to isolate it internationally.
