Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called for forming a committee to complete the dialogue on issues discussed during the reconciliation meeting of heads of Palestinian factions.
The meeting in Egypt’s New Alamein City, which was chaired by Abbas sought to restore inter-Palestinian unity among various factions amid the increasing violence between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank.
“I consider today’s meeting a first and important step to complete our dialogue, which we hope will achieve the desired goals as soon as possible,” Abbas said on Sunday in the meeting’s final statement.
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He proposed a committee to be formed by representatives of Palestinian factions that could start working immediately on discussed issues, Xinhua news agency reported.
He thanked Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi for hosting the meeting, as well as his keenness to help end the Palestinian division, which started in 2007.
He also thanked Algeria, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, China and Russia for their efforts to achieve inter-Palestinian unity.
While the two main rival movements, ruling Fatah and Gaza-controlling Hamas, took part in the meeting, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad announced beforehand it would boycott the gathering due to political arrests of some of its members by the Palestinian Authority headed by Abbas.
The gathering brokered by Egypt came amid soaring violence in the West Bank. In early July, the Israeli raids on the Jenin refugee camp killed at least 12 Palestinians and wounded more than 150. The Palestinian embassy noted that Abbas and Sisi are scheduled to meet on Monday.
Egypt, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, has been sponsoring meetings between Palestinian factions for years, in addition to brokering truces between armed Palestinian movements and Israel.
Egypt has repeatedly reiterated its position that supports the establishment of an independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with the internationally-recognised two-state solution.
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