EXCLUSIVE – Fatah Official: Reconciliation with Hamas Shouldn’t Impact Talks with Israel

TEL AVIV — No one has any right to interfere in Palestinian reconciliation efforts, Fatah public relations chief Iyad Nasser told Breitbart Jerusalem in response to Egypt’s renewed attempts to broker a reconciliation agreement between Fatah and the Hamas terrorist organization.

According to Nasser, Fatah is committed to making every effort to reach a reconciliation deal. “This is the desire of all the Palestinian factions,” he stated. “This is the Palestinian consensus and we are working to complete it.”

When asked whether reconciliation with Hamas might derail the efforts of the U.S. and the international community to renew political negotiations with Israel, Nasser responded, “There is no connection between negotiations and internal Palestinian reconciliation. The reconciliation doesn’t conflict at all with the efforts of the Palestinian leadership and President Abbas to renew political negotiations based on the national rights of the Palestinian people, especially the right to establish an independent state on all the 1967 territory.”

Despite Nasser’s claims, a unity deal with a terrorist organization committed to Israel’s destruction could indeed torpedo talks with the Jewish state.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas visited Russia on Monday. According to Nasser, one of the issues discussed during the visit was the need for a new sponsor to the political process.

“Our stance and that of the leadership is clear. We don’t trust the American government anymore, especially after their recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital,” said Nasser. “Our goal is to act with our brothers in the Arab world so that sponsorship of the political process won’t be only in the hands of the American administration as the occupation wants very much.” Nasser was negatively referring to Israel as “the occupation.”

Nasser’s comments come as a Hamas delegation arrived in Egypt on Monday to discuss the renewal of reconciliation talks and the expected arrival of an Egyptian security delegation to Gaza in the coming days to accelerate reconciliation efforts.

“Hamas is visiting Egypt and we have conveyed a number of clarifications to our brothers in Hamas through the Egyptians,” said Nasser, “and if Hamas’ responses are positive, a delegation of Fatah leaders and members of the movement’s central committee may go to the Gaza Strip to renew negotiations with Hamas.”

Nasser claimed that Hamas tried during the last round of talks to insist on the continued presence of a number of people in various government offices in the Gaza Strip, with what Nasser said was the intention to disrupt the work of those offices.

“The fact that Hamas recently allowed the establishment of a workers’ union to represent its employees also sent a discouraging message as far as the ability of the ministers to run their ministries in the Strip are concerned and as far as Hamas’ true intentions in all regards to transferring authority from its people to the ministers of the legitimate Palestinian government are concerned.”