Senior Fatah Official: Iran the ‘Number One Sponsor’ of Division Among Palestinian Factions

The Times of Israel reports: Azzam al-Ahmad, the head of Fatah’s delegation for Palestinian reconciliation, on Monday night said Iran is the “number one sponsor” of division between Palestinian factions.

Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas, the Islamist terror group which has controlled the Gaza Strip since it seized the enclave in 2007, are currently in the midst of a reconciliation process that began in October. In an interview with the Saudi satellite station al-Arabiya, Ahmad, in rare full-throated criticism of Iran by a senior Palestinian official, pointed to the Islamic Republic as the key cause of tensions between the two main Palestinian factions.

“Iran is the number one sponsor of the division… the number one financier,” he said. He added that “it seems one of the conditions for the return of Iranian support [to Hamas] is the continuation of the division.”