BICOM

A spat has reportedly erupted between Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and former PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad over a plan which Fayyad has publicised to bring about reconciliation between Abbas’ Fatah faction and Hamas, plus a subsequent diplomatic engagement with Israel.

Fayyad, who is an economist by trade, is considered a pragmatist and was appointed by Abbas as prime minister in 2007. However, they endured an often turbulent relationship and Fayyad relinquished his post in 2013. According to Avi Issacharoff in the Times of Israel, Fayyad unveiled a reconciliation plan on Tuesday night to Palestinian politicians and academics.

Fatah and Hamas have been at loggerheads since Hamas violently overthrew Fatah in the Gaza Strip in 2007. Although the two factions have periodically held talks and even reached agreements over forming a unity government since then, no accord has ever been implemented. As a result, Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, while the Fatah-dominated PA administers the Palestinian areas of the West Bank.

Fayyad’s plan apparently calls for an initial time-limited period during which all factions will agree to operate under the auspices of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). Within six months of the period coming to an end, long-postponed elections for the Palestinian parliament and PA leadership would be held. During this interim period, all factions including Hamas would agree to a prolonged ceasefire with Israel, providing a chance to organise Palestinian institutions and begin a diplomatic engagement with Israel. Apparently, this would be conducted along the lines of the Saudi-spearheaded Arab Peace Initiative, which envisages a pan-Arab rapprochement with Israel in return for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Abbas has reportedly responded angrily to Fayyad’s initiative, viewing it as an attempt to undermine his authority. An editorial in the PA news agency Wafa said that the plan contrasted with Abbas’s position and would “undermine the Palestinian people”. It even alleged that Fayyad’s initiative is part of a plan by Hamas and Israel to create an alternative to the PLO.

A separate media report suggests that Abbas has said that a potential three-way peace summit in Cairo between Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian leaders would be dependent on a number of pre-conditions, including a freeze on Israeli construction in the West Bank.