Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction yesterday said it had accepted an Egyptian proposal to end a rift with Islamist Hamas and would delay presidential and parliamentary elections due in January.
Egypt is trying to reconcile rival factions Fatah and Islamist Hamas and last week proposed holding elections during the first half of next year to allow more time to work out a power-sharing deal between the two rival groups.
Fatah’s acceptance of the delay now puts the onus on Hamas, which won the 2006 parliamentary election and a year later took over the Gaza Strip after routing forces loyal to Abbas in a brief civil war.
Fatah controls the West Bank and Hamas rules Gaza, territory that Palestinians want for a future state culminating from peace negotiations with Israel.
Presidential and parliamentary elections are slated for Jan. 25 but it remains unclear how they could take place with the Palestinian population split in two territories run by rival administrations that do not recognize one another.
“We have decided to accept the Egyptian proposal, including holding the elections during the first half of next year and no later than this date,” said Abbas Zaki, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee, the group’s executive body.
Fatah made the announcement early yesterday after its Central Committee convened a late-night meeting on Sunday chaired by Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Fatah officials said that Hamas had told Fatah during past round of talks that it prefers an extended delay to elections.
Nabil Shaath, another Fatah official, said that the group did not mind a delay but “there should be a specific date and not to leave the matter open, as if we do then it could be postponed again.”
Hamas has said it would state its position regarding the Egyptian proposal after the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Fitr due next week.
The Fatah-dominated Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee had already submitted the response to Egypt, said Aahmad Majdalani, a PLO member.
Abbas, who has Western backing, had said he would hold the elections on time with or without a deal with his Hamas rivals. Hamas has threatened to block the ballot if Abbas proceeds with the plan.
Egypt’s mediation efforts for a unity deal between Hamas and Fatah have so far shown no sign of progress in finding a formula for power-sharing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The Egyptian proposal stipulates that most Hamas political activists jailed by Fatah-led forces in the West Bank and Fatah men held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip would be released after a deal is reached.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of