BICOM

An Israeli radio station reports that the Palestinian Authority president has asked Israeli Arab leaders for help to mediate between his Fatah faction and Hamas.

Israel Radio reported that at a meeting in Ramallah on Saturday night, Mahmoud Abbas met Arab Israeli Members of Knesset, former MK Muhammad Barakeh, and municipal leaders. According to the Israel Radio report, Abbas indicated that he would abide by any understandings that would be reached in the talks.

The Palestinian Authority and Hamas formally agreed on a unity deal in 2014, scuppering peace talks with Israel. However, most of the deal has never been implemented and Hamas remains in control of Gaza.

Abbas has taken a more hardline position on Israel in public in recent months, talking about the need to defend al-Aqsa from Jewish defilers. In this meeting, he reportedly stuck a more conciliatory tone, telling his guests that “we need to get to every Israeli and show that we very much want peace” and indicated that he would be prepared to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but only if he “honoured previous agreements”.

Netanyahu has been publicly calling on Abbas to meet him “anytime, anywhere” without preconditions. Abbas has insisted that he will only meet Netanyahu if Israel first releases a number of Palestinian terror prisoners and freezes settlement construction as pre-conditions to talks.

Abbas also reportedly expressed support for the French peace initiative to his Israeli-Arab guests, while speaking sceptically about a similar initiative from Egypt. The French initiative focuses on international pressure on Israel and the Palestinians with minimal involvement by the parties themselves, while the Egyptian plan emphasises bilateral Israel-Palestinian talks tied with Arab countries normalising their relations with Israel. Israeli leaders reportedly prefer the Egyptian initiative and oppose France’s plan.

The meeting comes ahead of municipal elections in the West Bank and Gaza in October. Hamas has said it will contest the elections, making them the first competitive elections in 11 years. Owing partly to disorganisation and infighting inside Fatah, there are fears Hamas could take control of some towns in the West Bank.

According to Al-Halij, Abbas will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the end of the month, for the first time since Israel and Turkey signed a reconciliation agreement.