US Envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt has said that the Palestinian Authority should be part of the solution for the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip.
“If not, others will fill that void,” Greenblatt said.
“Leadership is about making hard choices,” he continued. “It is time for the Palestinian Authority to lead the Palestinian people to a better future,” he added.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a PA spokesman, said Greenblatt's comments were unacceptable and amounted to interference in the internal affairs of the Palestinians.
He noted that the Palestinians would oppose the American approach just as they fought President Donald Trump's so-called “Deal of the Century.”
Munir al-Jaghoub, head of Fatah’s Information Department in the Office of Mobilization and Organization, said that neither Greenblatt nor anyone else was authorized to talk about an issue that has to do with the sovereignty of the Palestinian people.
Senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk tweeted that the Palestine Liberation Organization shouldn’t be participating in the truce if the resistance wanted to retain its weapons and lift the siege off Gaza because the PLO is a signatory of the Oslo Accords.
During a phone call with his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday, Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi stressed that the legitimate Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas should shoulder its responsibilities in the Gaza Strip to help revive the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.
However, reliable sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Abbas, who appreciates the Egyptian efforts, wants inter-Palestinian reconciliation to precede any truce deal with Israel.
Ahmed Majdalani, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, stated to the newspaper that the US is exerting huge pressure to use the legitimate Palestinian authority for the purpose of passing the “Deal of the Century” under the excuse of achieving truce.
