The Palestinian factions will issue a joint statement after the ongoing three-day talks in Moscow, with the document covering the intra-Palestinian reconciliation, the status of Jerusalem, as well as objectives of the Palestinian state, Abu Marzook, a Hamas political bureau member, told Sputnik on Monday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th February, 2019) The Palestinian factions will issue a joint statement after the ongoing three-day talks in Moscow, with the document covering the intra-Palestinian reconciliation, the status of Jerusalem, as well as objectives of the Palestinian state, Abu Marzook, a Hamas political bureau member, told Sputnik on Monday.The third intra-Palestinian meeting in Moscow opened earlier in the day and will last through Wednesday. Palestinian Ambassador to Russia Abdel Hafiz Nofal told Sputnik earlier on Monday that the factions were going to work out a joint statement after the talks, which will include a road map on restoring the intra-Palestinian unity.
"Even today, before we finished the meeting, we already prepare the result of the meeting. It is a positive announcement that will happen after the meeting," Abu Marzook said.
According to Marzook, the announcement will include provisions about the Palestinian reconciliation, the Palestinian state as an objective for the Palestinians, the US plan for the middle East, the status of Jerusalem and the situation in the Gaza Strip.
"They are also talking about the Palestinians being united, about Russia helping Palestinians in many ways ... They are talking about all of these things, they are going to be in the announcement at the end of this meeting," Marzook added.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been ongoing for decades, and is rooted in Israel's refusal to recognize Palestine as an independent state on the territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Palestine, however, is also divided between two major factions Fatah, which governs the West Bank, and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
In 2005, following the withdrawal of the Israeli forces from Gaza, the Palestinian National Authority a governing body for both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank took control of both enclaves. But the unity within the Palestinian Authority did not last long as a conflict erupted between Fatah and Hamas in 2006, resulting in the split of the authority and Hamas taking over the Gaza Strip. The West Bank is still controlled by Fatah.
Russia is one of mediators in both the Israeli-conflict and the intra-Palestinian talks. US President Donald Trump's administration, meanwhile, has also been working on its peace plan for the Israeli-Palestinian settlement for months. However, Palestinians have rejected Washington's involvement in the conflict settlement after Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moved the US embassy there in May 2018 despite UN recommendations to refrain from establishing diplomatic missions in the city until its legal status is settled.
