Fatah Stresses Palestinian Unity to Foil Israeli Plots
Representatives of Fatah and Hamas held talks in Turkey on Thursday, during which they agreed to hold legislative and presidential elections, the first in Palestine in nearly 15 years.
“The agreement is part of efforts to unify the Palestinian position" to thwart "US-Israeli plots,” Fatah deputy leader Mahmoud al-Aloul told the official Voice of Palestine Radio on Saturday.
He said the Fatah-Hamas deal also aims to “confront moves by some Arab countries to normalize their relations," with the occupying regime, Press TV reported.
Earlier this month, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed US-mediated deals to normalize their relations with Israel.
Palestinians, who seek an independent state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital view the deals as betrayal of their cause.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas protested the normalization deals with Israel, saying they will be fruitless as long as the United States and the Israeli regime do not recognize the rights of the Palestinian nation and refuse to resolve the issue of Palestinian refugees.
Aloul further criticized the Arab League for turning down a Palestinian call to condemn the normalization deals of the two Arab states with Israel.
"The role of the Arab League is defected and it has failed to defend its resolution,” he said.
The Palestinian official further hailed Qatar's refusal to chair the rotating presidency of the Arab League after Palestine declined to assume the session in protest at the recent normalization deals.
Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riyad al-Maliki said on Tuesday that Palestine was giving up its right to chair the Council in light of the latest political developments.
The top Palestinian diplomat underlined that normalization of ties with the Israeli regime constitutes a flagrant violation of the decisions of summits convened under the so-called Arab Peace Initiative.
The so-called Arab Peace Initiative, which was proposed by Saudi Arabia in 2002, calls on Israel to agree to a “two-state solution” along the 1967 lines and a “just” solution to the Palestinian refugee issue.
In a statement on Thursday, Qatar refused to assume the presidency of the 154th regular session of the Arab League at the ministerial level instead of Palestine.
