Middle East Monitor / July 27, 2023
Turkiye’s President, Tayyip Erdogan, met Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, together with Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian group, Hamas, in Ankara on Wednesday, Erdogan’s office said.
Abbas is paying a visit to Turkey and had previously met with Erdogan on Tuesday.
Abbas and Haniyeh have been unable to repair a rift since 2007, when Hamas, which opposes peace deals with Israel, seized control of the Gaza Strip. Abbas’ Western-backed Palestinian Authority remains dominant in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
On Tuesday, Abbas agreed with Haniyeh, who currently resides between Qatar and Turkey, to hold a broad meeting of factions in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, at the end of July, to discuss the conflict with Israel and ways to end internal divisions.
Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank held little hope the meetings could reconcile the ongoing power struggle between Hamas and Abbas’ Fatah faction, the backbone of the Palestinian Authority, after many failed attempts in the past 16 years.
In a statement issued by Hamas on Wednesday, the group said its leaders reaffirmed in Tuesday’s meeting with Abbas that “resistance was the most efficient way to confront the (Israeli) occupation.”
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Hamas’ Haniyeh meets Palestinian President Abbas in Turkey
Middle East Monitor / July 26, 2023
A high-level Hamas delegation, led by head of the political bureau Ismail Haniyeh, yesterday met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the Turkish capital, Ankara, ahead of the planned meeting of the general secretaries of the Palestinian factions in Cairo.
Member of Hamas’ political bureau Husam Badran said that the meeting involved frank and in-depth discussions as part of the movement’s current efforts to ensure the success of the meeting to be held in Cairo by the general secretaries of the factions at the end of July.
During the meeting, the two parties agreed on the importance of pooling the national efforts to confront the dangers looming over the Palestinian cause, especially the right-wing Israeli government’s projects that seek to take over Palestinian land and expand illegal settlements.
The Hamas delegation also highlighted the importance of resistance as the most effective way to confront the Israeli occupation and address the challenges facing the national cause.
“We have stressed that the results of the general secretaries’ meeting must be commensurate with our people’s aspirations, so we need to prepare well for that meeting and create favourable field conditions for its success,” Badran said.
