Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday that he would discuss plans for new parliamentary elections with all factions, including longtime rivals Hamas.
Meeting with senior Palestinian leaders in the PA’s administrative capital of Ramallah in the West Bank, Abbas renewed a pledge to hold the polls — the first since 2006 — but without giving a timeframe.
He announced that they had formed committees to “communicate with the election commission and factions such as Hamas and all factions, as well as with the Israeli authorities.”
He said any elections should take place in “the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.”
Hamas and Fatah have been at loggerheads since 2007, when the terror group seized Gaza and threw out Abbas’s forces, which retained control of the internationally recognized Palestinian government, based in the West Bank.
No parliamentary elections have been held since 2006, with the two sides trading blame.
Multiple attempts at reconciliation have failed and analysts say new elections are impossible without improved relations.
Hamas said in a statement Saturday that it did not “know what Abu Mazen means by general election,” using the common nickname for Abbas.
The terror group said it had already committed itself to elections.
Related Articles:
We call upon the UK Government to officially recognise Jerusalem is Israel's capital and move its embassy to Jerusalem.
